The Alaska Legislature has signed an $11.8 million purchase agreement for Anchorage office space, allowing it to move out of a controversial building downtown.
The agreement was signed last week, and the Empire obtained a copy on Friday. The deal is set to close Sept. 15.
The Legislature’s new building, currently owned by Wells Fargo bank, is in Anchorage’s Spenard district, away from downtown and the site of the Legislature’s current office space.
The 47,000-square-foot Wells Fargo building is several thousand square feet larger than the Legislature’s existing office building, but according to plans previously shared with the Legislative Council (which makes decisions for the Legislature when the body is not in session), Wells Fargo will rent a portion of the building from the Legislature. The Legislature will also collect rent from telecommunications companies that use the roof of the building to host their antennae.
The Legislature still faces a $37 million claim from the owners of its leased downtown space. Those owners spent millions on renovations to the building, and they obtained a loan for those renovations based upon a 10-year signed lease with the Legislature.
Earlier this year, that lease was ruled invalid by an Anchorage Superior Court justice who said it violated the state’s contracting rules.
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