State, Weld County shift employee bases in downtown Greeley

GREELEY — While the city of Greeley contemplates major employee moves due to flooding damage at City Hall, Weld County and state officials have put their employees in a musical-chairs situation as well — mainly due to growth.

Weld County purchased the Chase Building, 822 Seventh St., in 2015 to accommodate future growth of county departments, specifically District Attorney, Probation and Human Services, according to Weld County public information officer Jennifer Finch. But as offices grow, the musical chairs begins: 

• The state Public Defender’s office moved in April to the Greeley Building,  710 11th Ave., while vacating the entire third floor of the Chase Building. 
• The Probation Department will fill the second floor of the Chase building next week. The department had been located in two spaces downtown, one of which was 17,500 square feet at the Marlboro Building directly across from the Weld County Courthouse on Ninth Avenue. When they occupy the entirety of the second and third floors of the Chase Building, the probation department will occupy 33,250 square feet. The third floor is under construction now.
• County officials have not yet determined how it will use the empty space in the Marlboro building that the probation department will vacate. “The county is in the process of reviewing and prioritizing projects in the county’s master facilities plan as we continue to evaluate departmental space needs and growth projections for services,” Finch said.

By moving into the historic Greeley Building, the state Public Defender’s office has taken over 70% of the building, leaving only a handful of the building’s legacy tenants left. 

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Drew Notestine, owner and manager of Thomas & Tyler, which owns the Greeley Building, said he signed a 10-year lease with the Public Defender’s office, now on its third major move in downtown Greeley.

“We came up with a conceptual space plan which would have them take over 70% of the building footprint, and after some discussion, we came to an agreement,” Notestine said. Many tenants were asked to move when their leases were up to make room.

“Part of the appeal for this building,” Notestine said, “is there is still room for public defenders to build out as their population grows over time.”

The Notestines put roughly $1.76 million into making previously unusable space usable with administrative space at the Greeley Building, which in total makes up about 40,000 square feet of rentable space. The public defenders take up about roughly 26,000 square feet of that. 

The state Public Defender’s office has grown steadily with the population, but that growth came at a price. They’ve had to move their offices now twice in the last several years. The public defenders were originally located at Greeley’s City Center North building at 1001 11th Ave. In the late 1990s, the group moved to the Chase Building, which offered them the entire third floor, which was 16,500 square feet. By moving to the Greeley Building in April, they gained another 10,000 square feet of elbow room.

The massive Greeley Building is on the National Historic Register, having served as Greeley’s first high school beginning in 1895. It operated as a school until the 1950s, Notestine said.

Notestine hired Roche Constructors Inc. in Greeley to remodel the building.