Ramsey County looks to buy Metro Square Building in downtown St. Paul

Ramsey County has reached a deal to pay $4 million for the 350,000-square-foot Metro Square Building at 7th and Jackson streets in downtown St. Paul.

The County Board met in secret session last Friday to authorize the negotiations.

The move is part of the county's continuing effort to move about 600 employees from the old West Publishing complex on the Mississippi River bluff along Kellogg Boulevard. The county has for several years tried to sell those buildings and the adjacent former jail to get them back on the tax rolls.

The board will vote Tuesday on whether to approve the purchase agreement with LNR Partners. If it does, the county would need to pay $400,000 in earnest money and do more research toward a purchase. Closing could take place by Oct. 9.

Before voting on the agreement, however, commissioners will consider moving $1.1 million from a capital improvement fund toward the project. Also, about $20 million in bonds to be issued in 2010 and 2011 would be used for the building purchase, remodeling and relocation expenses over the next two years.

The new location is near transit, will provide easy access to parking and a direct connection to the skyway, according to a memo sent Thursday by County Manager Julie Kleinschmidt.

Commissioners looked at more than a dozen sites over the last year, said Commissioner Rafael Ortega, chairman of the board's facilities committee. Metro Square would cost $1 million less to operate per year than the other options, he said. The building already houses several state offices; those employees would stay and the state would pay the county rent. "This is a fantastic deal," he said.

County Attorney Susan Gaertner doesn't think so.

The new location would put her staff farther away from the courthouse. "There are countless situations when we need to be in that courthouse very, very quickly," she said Thursday. She estimates that about 110 of her 350 employees need ready access to the courthouse.

In an Aug. 19 memo, she wrote that it typically takes an employee five minutes to get to the courthouse from the current location, but that Metro Square would push that to 15 minutes.

In a memo sent Wednesday, she wrote that she was "flabbergasted" that her office wasn't consulted about the negotiations. "In my view, the board demonstrated an arbitrary and unreasonable disregard for the responsibilities and duties of my office," she wrote.

Commissioner Victoria Reinhardt said the board also was concerned about keeping employees who need to be close to the courthouse nearby, but that the deal had to be negotiated quickly. During the 30-day due-diligence period, commissioners will discuss options with Gaertner, she said. "We want to work it out," she added.