A rendering of the proposed Marinette City Hall and Police Department, 2026. (Image courtesy of Marinette/The Boldt Company)
MARINETTE, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — Marinette is moving forward with plans to relocate its City Hall and police department.
The Common Council voted 6-2 Wednesday afternoon for design work to continue to renovate and add onto the city’s Armory building.
It’s been about 10 years since the Wisconsin National Guard vacated the historic Marinette Armory. A year before that is when a needs assessment showed upgrades were essential at City Hall and the police department.
“We knew it was coming. It was just a matter of when we were tackling it,” said Marinette Mayor Steve Genisot.
In March 2024, the city purchased the Armory for $400,000. A year later, the Common Council approved borrowing $7.5 million to renovate and/or relocate City Hall and the police department.
Boldt Construction recently presented the city preliminary cost estimates for three options:
- Moving City Hall and the police department to the Armory, with a 5,556-square-foot garage, for just over $9 million
- Moving both to the Armory, with a 3,880-square-foot garage, for $8.8 million
- Only move the police department to the Armory and renovate the current City Hall, for a total of $10.6 million
“I would like to see a much more detailed explanation of where the taxpayers’ money is going to be spent,” said Tom Karban, a member of the Common Council.
Karban was one of two council members, along with Mikutowski, who voted against design work moving forward to put City Hall and police at the Armory. He’d like design work for that option and for renovating the existing City Hall.
“If cost were the same, I would probably still consider staying here, because my question is, what’s going to happen to this building if we move?” said Karban.
T. Spell, a development group out of Milwaukee, is proposing putting 60 workforce apartment units in the current City Hall parking lot and putting a restaurant in the existing building.
“There’s just not enough parking,” said Karban.
“It could be $10-12 million of development,” said Genisot.
Genisot points out the property would also become taxable. He says Boldt’s estimates proves renovating City Hall will be too costly.
“You’re talking an old JCPenney building and then trying to get it up to current code, including sprinkler systems, all new mechanicals — plumbing, heating and electrical, as well as an elevator that is beyond use,” said Genisot.
The hope is final design work on putting both in the Armory will result in a firmer construction cost closer to the city’s $7.5 million budget.
The current City Hall is about 30,000 square feet, split between three floors. However, one floor is for storage and mechanical.
The Armory is 18,503 square feet, but a 7,554-square-foot addition would be put on, as well as the police garage.
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