Bids awarded to convert former federal courthouse to City Hall

The City Council this week awarded two packages of bids that will allow about $300,000 of work to begin in earnest to turn the former federal courthouse into the new City Hall.

The council has said it hopes to hold council meetings in the large former courtroom on the third floor of the building, at 101 First Street SE, by early summer.

The city had planned at one point to label the building the City Services Center, but City Manager Jeff Pomeranz has said recently that the building will be called City Hall.

Prior to the 2008 flood, the city's City Hall had been in the Veterans Memorial Building, down the street on May's Island.

The City Council now has decided to move the city offices that had been in the May's Island building to the former federal courthouse. The city took ownership of the building as part of a property swap, with the city providing land for the new federal courthouse.

The bids awarded this week consists of $303,581 of work, including $124,690 to install audiovisual equipment in the new council chambers.

For now, the council continues to hold regular meetings on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month at 5:30 p.m. at Hiawatha City Hall.