Grand Forks Public Health's potential move would bring it closer to City Hall

Jan. 31—GRAND FORKS — A year from now, Grand Forks Public Health could be moving to the new Franklin on Fourth building, across the street from City Hall.

For more than 20 years, the agency has been located in the Grand Forks County Office building. Public health is a joint endeavor between the city and county, but the city takes the lead in its operations. For several years, the city has been working to streamline and centralize operations as part of the 30-year planning horizon. This includes the consolidation of some city departments, and moving departments within City Hall to better serve city residents.

Housing public health in the county office building is governed by a reciprocal leasing agreement. Back when the lease was signed in 2000, public health was located on the second floor of the police building on Fifth Street South. As part of the lease, public health moved to the new county office building and the Grand Forks County Sheriff moved to the old public health space. Under the current reciprocal leasing agreement, the city doesn't pay rent to the county and the county doesn't pay rent to the city.

Now, the city would like to have more space within its police building for the police department and public safety answering point services. The move also helps public health with new opportunities, Grand Forks Public Health Director Tess Wall said.

"Opportunities just from an efficiency standpoint — there are some technical challenges we experience in our current space," Wall said. "There is an opportunity to utilize the communal spaces, whether that's hosting community education classes or events."

Some of those technical challenges are who to call for computer or phone issues. The computers are run through the city and the phones through the county. The move will also put public health closer to city meeting spaces available in City Hall and the HIVE.

Having public health located downtown is important, Wall said. It's close to the community partners they work with, and transportation is easier for many in Grand Forks, especially by bus. The new space would be more public-facing than the current space.

"One difference between our current layout versus the proposed layout is the proposed layout has two different floors," Wall said. "(The first floor) would be that public-facing space and the (second floor) would be more of that corporate space. (It) will definitely have impact to our workplace culture and that's something that's top of mind for me."

The proposed layout would have a street-level office with exam and immunization space. Most of public health would be located on the second floor of the building. Around 30 employees, out of 52 employees who work in public health, would move into this new space.

According to the estimate the city was provided by Northridge, the developer of Franklin on Fourth, getting the space ready for for public health would cost $1.3 million. The base rent for the space is $202,740 for slightly over 10,000 square feet of office. Some of the $1.3 million would be spread out over time and added to the lease payments. There would be community space upkeep fees tenants at the building pay too. The current public health office space is about the same size as this new space.

The Grand Forks City Council, while mostly positive about the move, did want to be presented with additional options.

"This is the only option we're being presented, and to me it seems like a lot of money," council member Rebecca Osowski said. "What about the basement (of City Hall), how's that looking?"

The basement of city hall is around 6,800 square feet. The space in the HIVE that the

Grand Forks Herald vacated in 2023

and the city is renovating around 5,000 square feet. Some of the council also pointed out that the cost of the city to build and entirely new building would cost much more than $1.3 million.

"Setting it up for 10,000 square feet it isn't actually that much money per square foot compared to what a private business would have to pay going into a strip mall for instance," council member Bret Weber said. "This is a pretty good deal for a lovely new space right across from City Hall."

The move, for now, hasn't been made a reality. The council has received the item as information and discussed and directed staff but hasn't made binding decisions on the move. Any binding decisions, like approving lease agreements will be to be approved by the city council.