The Minot City Council advanced the purchase of a building for a career and technical education center in approving a development agreement with the Minot State University Foundation Monday.

The agreement provides for transfer of a previously approved $800,000 MAGIC Fund grant to the foundation to buy the Trinity Health building at 120 E. Burdick Expressway.

The city has $3.5 million in National Disaster Resilience grant dollars for remodeling, equipping and staffing the building.

“We need technical education in this community. We need to improve on our workforce in that area, and so I’m delighted to see this moving forward,” council member Mark Jantzer said.

“This is going to be a tremendous asset to the community and I hope a starting point, where we see an expansion on this,” Mayor Shaun Sipma added.

As proposed, the MSU Foundation would lease the building to Dakota College at Bottineau for $6,000 annually plus liability insurance and operating expenses to run it as a CTE center for 10 years. The 10-year lease would begin once DCB completed the remodeling, and the lease would be renewable after 10 years. Operation has been projected for the fall of 2022.

Ownership of the building would revert to the city if the CTE operation discontinues before the end of 10 years. Continuation requires at least three academic programs in the first year, four in the second year or an average of five during years three through 10. It requires 50 students in the second year, 100 students in the third year or an average of 150 students in years four through 10. The center also must employ at least five full-time employees in the first year, six in the second year or an average of seven during years three through 10.

The city council also gave architectural guidance regarding floor plans for the former Wells Fargo building, which the city plans to convert into a new city hall as a separate National Disaster Resilience project. The council decided against moving Engineering and Community Development departments from the Public Works Building to a new city hall after learning the departments would fill enough space to prevent future growth in the building.

Architect Doug Larson explained the advantages of keeping engineering functions at the Public Works Building. They include the investment already made in the Public Works Building, more opportunity for growth there and the ability to better accommodate the construction clientele who utilize the engineering and public works services.

The advantage of moving offices to the new city hall would be to create a one-stop shop. However, council member Lisa Olson noted the move would add to the demand on parking needed to accommodate staff and visitors in the downtown location.