UPDATE: Cost of Watertown’s new City Hall estimated to be $6.3 million (Audio)

June 21, 2022
Mike Tanner

WATERTOWN, S.D.–The costs of renovating the now vacant Wells Fargo Bank building (pictured) in downtown Watertown into a new City Hall are coming into focus.

At a city council work session Tuesday afternoon, Public Works Director Heath VonEye went through a detailed presentation on those costs.

The renovations, including a new addition that would be built onto the building to serve as the council chambers, would bring the total cost to $6.3 million, which includes the $1.3 million the city has already spent to purchase the property.

Mayor Ried Holien has shown tepid support for this project since the beginning, and even after Tuesday’s presentation, he’s still not fully sold on the idea….

KWAT News asked the mayor why he’s not “all in” on moving city hall into a former bank building…

For the first time, the mayor publicly admitted he’s been looking for a different building that could serve as a City Hall, but he couldn’t find one…

The mayor says the total cost of $6.3 million dollars is doable….

The council is expected to open construction bids on the renovatino project at their July 12th meeting.

Work would start this fall, with a 12-month construction timeline.

It was mentioned in the work session that a fully-outfitted, newly-constructed City Hall would cost at least $10 million. Councilman Bruce Buhler says it’s important for the public to know that the route the city is taking is the less expensive option.