The Minneapolis City Hall became home again to the mayor of Minneapolis at the end of March after two years, while the City Council and other staff must wait until early June to move in. 

Renovations include updating the building’s electrical and mechanical infrastructure, creating a new media room and office suite for the mayor’s team and remodeling the City Council chamber.

This was the third time in Minneapolis’ history that the mayor’s office moved, with the office originally in the southwest corner of the first floor. During the 1940s, building modifications moved the office from the first to the third floor, still on the southwest corner. Now, the mayor’s office is in the southeast corner of the third floor.

“After more than a year away, it feels great to be back in our historic City Hall,” Mayor Jacob Frey said. “The building is one of the most iconic in Minneapolis, and now it’s even better. I’m incredibly proud of the crews who brought it back to life—from modern technology to restored original features to a completely revamped council chamber, the transformation is nothing short of remarkable.”

Constructed between 1889 and 1905, City Hall is the central building for local government and was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1975. Original features of the building, like a staircase and molding, were uncovered in the recent renovations. 

While City Hall has been under construction, the mayor, City Council and city staff have worked out of the Minneapolis Public Service Center across the street.

Although he looks forward to moving back into City Hall, City Council Member Elliott Payne (Ward 1) said that being in the Public Service Center has allowed for deeper conditions with the city clerk, who administers elections and maintains city records. 

In the original layout of the building, the city clerk’s work area was not close to the council members, making it difficult to easily talk with them, Payne said. In the new City Hall, their offices will be combined, allowing for an easy exchange of information. 

Payne said another issue with the original layout was the varying office sizes, often leading to inequities among the council members. 

“There were ‘good and bad’ offices. Somebody would always think they had a bad office. Now, they all have the same level of amenity,” Payne said. 

In the new City Council chamber, the council members’ seating area will be pushed forward to allow more accessibility for mobility devices. Payne said he is interested in the new seating capacity since the bench moving forward may limit space. 

“(The City Council) did a budget amendment at the end of last year to improve accessibility. We were getting scrutiny with closed captions, audio and video issues,” Payne said. “We updated all of our equipment to better suit all.” 

The construction of City Hall cost around $35 million with construction expected to be complete by the end of 2025.

Correction: A previous version of this article listed the Public Service Center as the Public Service Building.