UPDATED: New Richfield City Hall Near Completion, Set to Open June 6

Last Updated: Tuesday, May 24, 2011 at 10 p.m.

Since , Stahl Construction has been working quickly to finish the new Richfield City Hall and Municipal Center for its Spring 2011 debut. While finishing touches are still being feverishly worked on, the new center is officially scheduled to open June 6, with staff beginning the move June 3.

The new building is nearly double the size of the old facility, measuring out to be about 100,000 square feet, according to Mike Klass, project manager with Wold Architects Engineers.

In addition to the space gain, city staff and designers worked hard to ensure the building was tailored to its employees as well as community members, according to Pam Dmytrenko, assistant city manager. Among some of the upgrades:

Employee Perks

• New and upgraded office fixtures and technology.
• There are four large skylights in addition to tons of windows, which allow each worker to benefit from natural light.
• The has an improved training tower, which will better train its firefighters.

Community Perks

• Three community meeting rooms that can be reserved for an event or meeting.
• A prep kitchen if an event needs to be catered. A courtyard area was added to connect the building with . It will serve as a great picnicking area.
• Display cases in the lobby were built in as a place to feature community members’ or groups’ art and achievements.

“We really did ask our staff for assistance in planning the building,” Dmytrenko said. “So, I think everyone is excited.”

While the building itself will soon be complete, the site itself will still need some work. The city will soon begin an abatement process on the old building to check for asbestos and other hazards, before demolishing it. Once the building is cleared and demolished, the site of the old building will be turned into parking—which will likely not be completed until late October or early November 2011, according to Gary Maciejny, of Stahl Construction.

In addition, workers will begin restoring Heredia Park will have its tennis courts and other park amenities re-installed. On Monday, workers were installing new fencing around the baseball diamond. City Staff said the park will likely not be open to the public until the Fourth of July weekend.

Dmytrenko said once the entire site is completed, the city will plan a grand opening in the fall. Richfield Patch will continue to update readers on the progress of the site.