ANN ARBOR, MI — Ann Arbor officials are moving forward with a $2.5 million renovation of the city’s election center, updating it and making room for additional city operations.
City Council voted 10-0 to approve a construction contract with Phoenix Contractors Inc. on Monday, Sept. 15, for the project at the Miller Road facility on the city’s far west side.
The reconfiguration of the building’s interior will ensure efficient election operations and make room for the city’s Community Television Network studios as the lease for CTN’s space on South Industrial Highway is expiring, officials said.
It also will make room for Ann Arbor’s new economic development office, officials said.
The city’s new economic development director, Joe Giant, is currently working out of the Ann Arbor SPARK building on Liberty Street downtown. The city is getting ready to hire a new economic development coordinator to work alongside Giant and the job is now posted online.
Giant said in a recent interview about the wave of longtime businesses closing downtown he hopes the new coordinator in part will be a boots-on-the-ground resource to be extremely dialed into the local business community.
“So that if the city is going to be involved in making sure that downtown and the rest of the city thrives, we know what the issues are facing them, we know that the policies and regulations that we’re talking about are going to help,” he said.
City Council voted 10-0 in September 2023 to purchase the building at 3021 Miller Road in the Forest Cove office campus for $2.8 million with the main purpose of having a secure and big enough location to store and count election ballots as many voters have switched to absentee voting. The city planned to eventually remodel it to make room for CTN.
Upcoming improvements include updating heating and cooling systems, soundproofing for CTN operations and a space better suited for secure election result storage, vote counting and voting activities, officials said.
Other changes include new carpeting, new walls and finishes, ceiling updates, refreshed common areas, updated electrical and low-voltage systems, installation of electric vehicle charging stations and hookups for solar arrays, battery backup systems and a generator ensuring uninterrupted operations in the event of a power outage.
A $1.4 million state grant will cover part of the $2.5 million cost, while the city is tapping into its climate-action millage funds to the tune of about $312,000, its general fund to the tune of about $223,000 and about $606,000 in CTN funds to cover the rest.
The budget breakdown shows $2.4 million in construction costs, $24,000 for public art, nearly $23,000 for information technology and telecommunications, $61,000 for furnishings and fixtures and $24,000 in contingency funds.
The funds being pulled from the city’s general fund are coming from the sale of city air rights above an alley to a high-rise developer next to the city’s Forest Avenue parking garage in the South University Avenue area, officials said.
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