Juneau weighs selling City Hall for $1M less than asking price as Burns Building delays mount

Juneau's Assembly Committee of the Whole meets Monday at 6 p.m. to work through a pair of unresolved City Hall questions: the building the city wants to sell carries a $2.5 million minimum bid, the only publicly known offer is $1 million short of that floor, and the replacement space will not be ready for nearly a year. The committee takes no public testimony and makes no binding decisions. The next full Assembly meeting is July 20.

Ordinance 2026-15, introduced March 9, was discussed at the March 16 Committee of the Whole and forwarded to the April 6 regular Assembly meeting for public hearing. No testimony was received at that meeting. The ordinance authorizes City Manager Katie Koester to sell City Hall at 155 Heritage Way by sealed bid, with a floor of $2.5 million. Sealaska Heritage Institute has offered $1.5 million and proposed housing the City Museum on the building's second floor, an arrangement Koester notes could add about $250,000 to the City Museum budget at market rate. The City Hall item was postponed at the May 4 Committee of the Whole due to time constraints.

At the same time, bids for the Burns Building renovation are due in mid-July. An engineer's estimate puts the cost between $4.85 million and $6.2 million against an $8.5 million renovation budget for two floors of the building, part of a $20.5 million total project. The earliest the city can expect substantial completion is May 2027, pushing lease costs $328,000 over the FY27 budget. The Assembly is expected to award the renovation contract at its July 27 regular meeting.

Koester has suggested drawing on the Lands Fund to cover potential cost overruns, with the expectation that City Hall sale proceeds would replenish it.

Leaving City Hall vacant is not free. Mothballing the building runs between $50,000 and $85,000 per year, depending on the level of shutdown, and an empty building carries added vandalism and maintenance risks.