Minnesota legislators approve $500M overhaul of State Office Building

The state will spend roughly $500 million to renovate and significantly expand the building where Minnesota House members and other state employees work and hold public meetings, a price one legislator called "egregious."

A House panel approved plans Wednesday for the project, which will cost more than the State Capitol overhaul or the construction of the Senate's new office building.

Officials who manage state facilities, provide security and work in the building stressed that repairs to the 90-year-old State Office Building are overdue. They detailed its problems on Monday, including repeated flooding, mold, unmet ADA requirements, makeshift workspaces and overflowing meeting rooms.

"We cannot any longer just continue to hope and pray that we're going to be safe in our operations here," said departing DFL House Majority Leader Ryan Winkler. "We can leave a legacy of access and public safety in this building."

But the cost estimate concerned some lawmakers on the House Rules and Administration Committee, the lone entity that needed to approve the plans and cost. All GOP members present at Wednesday's rules committee voted against it, while the DFL majority on the committee signed off on the plan.

"Maybe it's time we take a step back and take a deep breath on this one. We're talking about half a billion," said outgoing GOP House Minority Leader Kurt Daudt. "This number was far beyond what I was expecting and is actually shocking."

More detailed construction plans need to be completed by the summer of 2023, Winkler said. Construction on an addition north of the existing building could potentially start in January 2024, according to House staff. The State Office Building will be completely shut down for the 2025 and 2026 legislative sessions, Winkler said.

Relocation of tenants during construction and other costs, like new furniture, were not included in the nearly $500 million estimate.

The current building is unsafe and doesn't meet the needs of the public or employees, Winkler said, but "politically no one's had the will" to overhaul it. He said the plan would create a more secure building by controlling public access to House members' offices.

Daudt said he appreciates Democrats taking on a politically challenging project, but called the cost "egregious." He noted that it cost $310 million to do the four-year State Capitol renovation that wrapped up in 2017, and $90 million to build the Senate Office Building, which was constructed about the same time.

Legislators have "failed Minnesotans" if they think the cost and the process to consider the project are acceptable, he said, pointing to the lack of public discussion about options to address the building's problems.

Members of the House committee voting on the expansion saw the cost and plans only a couple of hours before Wednesday's meeting, said Rep. Jim Nash, R-Waconia, adding that Minnesotans deserve more transparency when the cost is so high.

"We've been pausing for a long time," Winkler said, and delays won't make the project any cheaper.

Over the course of years of proposals to renovate the building, the estimated cost has continued to grow as inflation and building costs climb. About $116 million of the $500 million will go to covering "contingencies and inflation," according to the cost estimate.

The current building is about 290,000 square feet. It needs to be larger than 456,000 square feet to meet the needs of its tenants, including House members and staff, the Secretary of State and various legislative offices and commissions, said Joe Stahlmann, vice president of the project management firm MOCA, which held a series of workshops with building tenants to determine needs.

The proposed renovation of the building — which is southwest of the State Capitol — would expand its footprint northward, said Steve Berg, architect for the firm BWBR, who laid out the proposed renovations.

It could cost less to tear down the building and replace it, but legislators on both sides of the aisle said that's not a reasonable option. The office building opened in 1932, and its façade mirrors the Judicial Building located opposite it on the Capitol mall.

Many aspects of the building are still in good or excellent condition, from the floors to the elevators to the fire sprinkler system, according to a facility condition assessment. That 2020 analysis labeled the overall building "very low fair, just barely over poor," said Facilities Management Director Christopher Guevin, and he expects the next assessment in July will find it in poor condition overall.

Daudt suggested making some updates to the building and enlisting spaces around the Capitol complex to handle demand for additional room. He proposed using the state-owned Ford Building across University Avenue or moving the Secretary of State's office to the Capitol.

It would be time-consuming and difficult to take up Capitol space, and updating the Ford Building's "rotten, moldy interior" would not save money, Winkler said.