After years leasing downtown office space and deferring maintenance on city-owned facilities, Minneapolis officials may demolish a parking ramp and erect a new building to house a range of city services.
About half of the city's 1,400-person downtown workforce is located outside of City Hall in leased office space and four city-owned buildings. Those city buildings require major renovations, which have been put on hold as the city considers leaving them for a more centralized new space.
A group of City Hall leaders analyzing the issue with a consultant recommended that the city construct a new building just west of the armory — on what is now a city parking ramp. It could replace the city's downtown fire station and house a range of employees, such as those in the city's development department.
City staff members said in interviews with consultants that they waste time moving from building to building, lack appropriate meeting space and find that existing space does not encourage collaboration.
The City Council Ways & Means Committee, which received an update on the project Monday, voted to hire outside help to develop the plan further. More details, including costs, are expected toward the end of this year.
The sale of existing buildings for redevelopment and potential tax growth on those sites would help offset the cost of the new building, but the city simultaneously would lose parking revenue. The city's chief financial officer said Monday that more money would be available in the budget as the city pays off several bonds in the next five years.
"I want to emphasize that it's not going to be our recommendation that we have a big increase in the levy in 2017 to pay for this building," said Mark Ruff, the city's chief financial officer. "We have lots of options to consider."
The eight-story, approximately 1,300-space Government Center parking ramp, built in 1974, is among the more profitable in the city's portfolio. It earned nearly $1.6 million in profit in 2013.
Greg Goeke, the city's director of property services, said the new building could include some parking.
Assuming the plan is approved, Goeke said demolition of the ramp would not begin until the Super Bowl is over in February 2018. Staff potentially could move in by 2020.
Eric Roper • 612-673-1732
Twitter: @StribRoper
