Jill Schramm/MDN Minot’s existing city hall could be replaced, or expanded, depending on the option ultimately selected to give city offices more space.

The former Wells Fargo building and the structure known as the “Big M” building are potential locations for a new Minot city hall. However, city officials continue to weigh the options, which include expanding the existing city hall or building new.

The two large former financial institutions are the only two currently available downtown properties that have enough space to meet the city’s requirement.

“There are big rehabilitation costs associated with each of those buildings,” City Manager Tom Barry said. “We have to evaluate whether or not that makes sense to do.”

He said the city has been talking with the buildings’ owners, but officials also are keeping their eyes open for other properties that might become available.

To utilize a $3.75 million National Disaster Resilience grant set aside for a new city hall, the city would have to rehabilitate an existing building in the city’s downtown core and move its offices.

“One of the other caveats is that we have to have our dispatch center located inside that new city hall facility, so now that does change what happens operationally at the police station,” Barry said. The police station would remain at its current location in the existing city hall.

Although rehabilitating a downtown building remains the city council’s focus at present, the city also developed concept plans for expansion of the existing city hall or construction of a new city hall. Plans were presented to the council at its retreat at the end of July. The new construction would be south of the existing city hall, at the corner of Burdick Expressway and Sixth Street Southwest.

The city council is discussing a new city hall because of the need for more space, a desire to bring together offices that have been scattered in different buildings and possibly to escape the flood risk associated with the existing building. It was noted at a town hall meeting recently that Minot City Hall would have had about three feet of water in it had not the city been able to barricade the building with a huge dike during the flood of 2011.

Barry said an internal staff team and a CDM Smith consultant conducted a space analysis to determine the best size for a new city hall. It also conducted a gap analysis to determine additional space needs.

The lack of adequate storage rooms, break rooms and any office space or conference room for the mayor or council members to meet with constituents were among the gaps, Barry said. Council members are conducting business at coffee shops or he excuses himself from his office so they can meet there, he said.

“Our recommendation is that essentially all the departments in City Hall, except for the police department, would be moved, and all of the departments that are occupying the auditorium would also be moved,” he said. The city’s public information office, information technology and municipal court are located in Minot Municipal Auditorium.

The National Disaster Resilience Program, which has had offices in the auditorium and the Public Works Building, also would move to a new city hall.

Barry said it is important to build beyond current capacity to accommodate anticipated growth over the period of time the building is expected to serve. Minot’s growth rate has been about a half percent over the past 60 years, and the building should be expected to last at least 50 years. That equates to about 25% additional space beyond the city’s immediate need today.

“We just wouldn’t finish out that 25% until we needed it as we grew into it,” Barry said. “But you would want to build at today’s prices because building at tomorrow’s price is going to be a whole lot more.”

Barry said another analysis will be needed to determine whether expansion or construction at the existing site is more cost effective than buying and rehabilitating a downtown structure that has a $3.75 million grant attached. Rehabilitation also can bring unexpected costs once the work gets started.

Barry said it is difficult to estimate costs in the conceptual phase, but rough estimates range from $15.7 million to almost $22 million for the various options.

At one time, the council considered bringing the new city hall and a center for technical education into a single project. The goal was to try to gain efficiencies by stretching the available NDR money further. The $1.5 million available for a CTE wasn’t enough to give the project traction.

A blended project is becoming less of a focus lately, though.

Barry said the city has been eyeing a Trinity Health building that could work for a CTE if Trinity is interested in donating it. Although it looks promising, Barry said, a key factor will be whether Trinity can vacate the building in time for the city to spend the $1.5 million before the grant-imposed deadline of Sept. 30, 2022. Trinity has been aiming for a 2021 completion of its new medical complex in southwest Minot.

Minot State University President Steve Shirley said at a recent town hall forum that a downtown location would be suitable for a technical center offering training in soft skills. Training involving industrial arts would need more of an industrial park setting, but the money available at this time is not sufficient to provide for that type of facility, he said.

Funding a new city hall comes with its own challenges.

“The funding for at least the first 10 million or so has been identified,” Barry said. It includes the $3.75 million from the NDR grant and $6.25 million from city reserves. Barry said work on a new city hall would not begin until full funding has been established.