Design, engineering services sought for former Thrivent tower

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Hennepin County officials are laying the groundwork for improvements to the former Thrivent Building, a 17-story downtown Minneapolis office tower acquired by the county in 2018.

In a new request for proposals, the county is seeking design and engineering services for work that will allow the county to occupy the 525,000-square-foot tower, now known as the 625 Building. Built in 1981, the building is at 625 Fourth Ave. S., directly across from the Hennepin County Government Center.

Among other duties, the design and engineering firm will recommend the improvement or replacement of building systems, and establish design standards for the remodeling, according to the RFP.

“With the RFP that is out now, we are trying to get some baseline standards that we can move forward with,” said Barbara O’Brien, Hennepin County’s director of facility services. “It’s very heavy on the mechanical, electrical and environmental side of things.”

The selected firm will take the project through the schematic design phase. The county then plans to amend the contract for design development, construction documents and construction administration services.

Hennepin County agreed in fall 2017 to acquire the building for $55 million from Thrivent Financial for Lutherans. The deal closed in August 2018. Thrivent continues to occupy the building while the financial services firm’s new office tower is under construction.

Thrivent’s new eight-story, 350,000-square-foot building is rising on a block surrounded by Sixth and Seventh streets and Portland and Fifth avenues in Minneapolis. The company has about 1,200 employees at its existing building.

Thrivent’s new building is scheduled for occupancy in summer 2020, said Callie Briese, Thrivent’s director of external affairs.

The county said in 2017 that it would use the Thrivent Building to consolidate operations for “workforce planning and space needs.”

A previous director of Hennepin County facilities, Mike Sable, told the Hennepin County Board in September 2017 that the county would spend about $25 million to $40 million over 10 years to remodel the former Thrivent building.

But some of that – perhaps $20 million to $25 million — would be offset by savings at other buildings that the county would vacate as part of the move, Sable said at the time.

O’Brien said Monday that it remains to be seen exactly how much will be invested in the building or how extensive the renovation will be. As the building stands today the work space is primarily offices with surrounding cubicles, O’Brien said.

One desire is to create more flexible work environments. Still, “we won’t make changes just to change,” O’Brien said. “We want to be strategic about the way we use our resources.”

The county is accepting design and engineering proposals through Aug. 2. A pre-proposal meeting is scheduled for July 24, 11:00 a.m. at the Robert H. Rohlf meeting room at the Ridgedale Regional Center in Minnetonka.

Next steps include awarding the contract (September 2019), establishing design standards (December 2019) and beginning construction documents (January 2020).

The project will go out for construction bids in March 2020. Construction is slated to begin next summer with county occupancy in spring 2021, according to the RFP.