Juneau Assembly votes 6-3 to sell old City Hall to Sealaska Heritage Institute for $1.5 million

The Juneau Assembly voted 6-3 Monday to sell the old City Hall to Sealaska Heritage Institute for $1.5 million — $1 million below the $2.5 million minimum bid the Assembly's Lands Committee had endorsed in February for a competitive sale. Members chose that negotiated deal over a competing proposal that would have put the building out to sealed bid.

The sale closes a long chapter for the building and the city's search for office space. The proceeds are meant to offset the cost of buying new offices — two floors of the Michael J. Burns Building, which the Assembly agreed to purchase in September 2025 under a condominium arrangement with the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation, and later approved a $4.4 million renovation contract for. That route followed voters' rejection in 2022 of a $27 million bond to design and build a new City Hall.

Sealaska Heritage came to the table during public testimony, offering to buy the property outright through a negotiated sale for $1.5 million rather than compete in a sealed-bid process. The Assembly could approve only one method, and it chose the negotiated deal.

What the institute plans for the site is ambitious. SHI intends four years of fundraising for a roughly $40 million, 30,000-square-foot, three-story building with a Northwest Coast art glass studio, and possible space for the Juneau-Douglas City Museum and residential apartments. It will first spend about $1 million to demolish the old City Hall and dispose of contaminants, then plant a garden on the lot until construction begins. The institute employs more than 100 people in Juneau and generates more than $30 million a year in economic activity, according to a 2023 study.

"We know this was a difficult decision for our city's leaders, but we are thrilled with the assembly's decision, and we look forward to further revitalizing the downtown area, enhancing Heritage Square and bringing glass culture and economic opportunities to Juneau," SHI President Rosita Worl said.

Not everyone was sold on the terms. The city has owned the building since the 1950s, when it was built as the downtown fire station, and is leaving because of failing infrastructure. Testifying in July, Douglas resident Carol Bookless called selling the "$2.5 million City Hall property for $1.5 million" one of several inconsistent city land deals. One loose end remains even in the paperwork: the two competing proposals described the same lot at wildly different sizes — one at about 2.35 acres, the other at about 0.25 — and a staff-requested amendment Monday left the exact acreage unresolved.