State Rep. Paul Torkelson was looking out his window at the State Office Building in St. Paul into the ever-deepening hole that is the site for the building’s expansion. In addition to the sheet pile drivers and earth moving equipment that has been populating the site for weeks, he saw something a bit out of place.
Rather than the crews staffing the sheet pile driver that has been hammering foundation pieces into the ground, he saw workers in yellow vests and hardhats surveying what Torkelson calls “The Big Dig.” They were archeology consultants working with the contractor on the half-billion-dollar expansion of the building that holds offices for the state House of Representatives, joint legislative offices and committees and the Secretary of State.
Had they found something? Would it delay the project or increase the cost? The Hanska Republican and deputy minority leader asked the DFL majority about it at a Rules Committee meeting this week, saying he had received some “sketchy” information from the state Department of Administration.
“I’m just curious if there’s gonna be some public notification of what’s going on with this project,” he asked House Majority Leader Jamie Long. “There’s a potential for these sorts of digs to stall projects.” Will it add to costs or delay the completion, he asked.
“There will not be an increase in costs and I don’t have more to share on the historical findings than was shared with you,” Long said.
As it turns out, it wasn’t anything as exciting as another runestone, nothing prehistoric and nothing from Native Americans who lived on the land before white settlement. Curtis Yoakum, an assistant commissioner at the state Department of Administration, said it appears to be the remains of a small garbage dump used by residents and business owners when the block held buildings on portions of what were then Wabasha and Aurora streets.
Construction has stopped while archeology consultants survey the findings.
“As is common during redevelopment of an urban site, a feature was uncovered that includes three connected foundations and some refuse most likely related to several commercial and residential structures that were present along Wabasha Street between the late 19th century and early-20th century,” Yoakum wrote.
So far, the deposits are butchered animal bone, glass, ceramics and household objects.
“The archeological consultant is currently working to finalize the treatment plan, including documentation, laboratory analysis, and potential display of recovered materials,” Yoakum wrote. “The goal of this process is to ultimately help understand and tell the story of the daily life of the families living and working in these structures.”
The consultants have been onsite as part of a cultural resources plan completed this past fall before construction began.
“The potential to find remnants of the former neighborhood that stood on the site were incorporated into the planning including monitoring and contingency treatment plans,” Yoakum said.
According to a report by the project archeologists, the foundations correspond to buildings at what was then 751 to 761 Wabasha Street.
“Based on newspaper articles, census records, historical maps, and other historical sources, the buildings that historically occupied this area … housed commercial properties on the first story, and likely had residential units in the second stories of at least two buildings,” the consultants concluded. “Based on the location of the potentially intact deposits in the back of the late 19th century foundations, it is likely they represent privies or domestic/commercial waste middens associated with the people who ran businesses and lived in these buildings.”
Republicans have tried to make the state office building expansion – due to be complete in December 2026 – and the renovation of the existing building into a political issue. Republicans use $730 million as the cost, which includes all potential interest payments over the life of the debt certificates sold to pay for it. DFLers use the construction cost of $500 million.
In a letter to legislative leaders this past fall, Minnesota Management and Budget Commissioner Erin Campbell said the interest rate on the certificates of participation – a form of borrowing – is 4.39%. For the 20 year terms of the certificates, that will require $36 million a year in payments.
“As part of MMB’s ongoing responsible management of the state’s debt portfolio, we will look for opportunities to refinance the COPs in the future and achieve interest rate savings so the final cost could be less,” Campbell wrote.
Either way, the project is expensive – much more than the cost of the $77 million Senate Office Building in 2014 or the $301 million renovation of the State Capitol building in 2017.
“The interest alone – $275 million – on Democrats’ luxury office building is almost as much as was spent on the entire renovation of the Minnesota Capitol. This is financial insanity,” wrote House Minority Leader Lisa Demuth, R-Cold Spring, in a fundraising letter this year.
The ongoing project was approved by a divided Legislature in 2021 – with the House controlled by DFLers and the Senate controlled by Republicans. It followed examinations of the current building that showed significant health and safety concerns. The uprisings and other disturbances following the murder of George Floyd also exposed safety and security problems with the current building.
The legislation allowed the House Rules Committee to approve the final design and budget for both the renovation of the existing building and construction of the new addition without returning to the full Legislature. That was done in late 2022.
Expect to see references to the project in GOP campaign materials this fall.
“I’ve not been satisfied with the way this has been handled,” Torkelson said. “When it was approved in 2022 it was a done deal and GOP concerns and comments were not considered.
“Especially at a time when we have a lot of empty office space around the campus, something like this just feels extravagant. It’s over the top.”
Torkelson said he hopes to install what he calls “The Palace Cam” that would stream live video of the construction site the way the state Department of Natural Resources has its Eagle Cam. While his office has a view, House members need to move out of the existing state office building once session ends.
“I have a spot in mind but I haven’t gotten approval yet,” he said.
Peter Callaghan covers state government for MinnPost. Follow him on Twitter @CallaghanPeter or email him at pcallaghan@minnpost.com.
