Two Hennepin County Sheriff's Office facilities in downtown Minneapolis are getting upgrades, part of years of planned work at public safety facilities across the county.
In early March, the Hennepin County Board approved a $1.4 million construction contract for upgrades to the Sheriff's Office on the first floor of Minneapolis City Hall and $14.1 million for improvements at the Public Safety Facility across the street.
The Hennepin County Public Safety Facility opened in 2000 and is used 24-hours a day. It will receive a new elevator and repairs to other elevators; fixes to cell plumbing and resident showers, and a new roof.
Those repairs are part of the county's capital improvement plan and are the latest work at the Fourth Avenue South building that houses a jail with 270 cells used for pretrial detentions.
Last year, the County Board approved $2.6 million for an updated building control system that operates the heating and cooling system. The board also approved $1.7 million to convert and replace about 4,500 light fixtures with more efficient ones — saving an estimated $113,000 on energy and maintenance.
The board also approved $572,000 for a new fence around the public safety facility. Solar panels are planned for the roof.
Those are just some of the capital improvements planned for Sheriff's Office facilities in Minneapolis. County leaders are also working out updates to the Juvenile Detention Center and neighboring crime laboratory on Park Street.
There are also plans to renovate space the sheriff's office uses at Minneapolis City Hall, including the $1.4 million project recently approved by the board to update offices and conference rooms. City Hall also has holding cells the Sheriff's Office uses in addition to the cells at the Public Safety Facility.
City Hall is already undergoing a multi-year, $32.5 million renovation to modernize offices and meeting spaces in the historic structure. Most city officials, including those of the City Council and the mayor, have moved to other offices while the renovations are underway.
The building is owned and operated by the Municipal Building Commission, which is made up of city and county officials.
