The Alaska Legislature has signed a purchase agreement for new Anchorage offices in Spenard, with the sale expected to be finished in less than two months.
Lawmakers are spending $11,825,000 on the building, owned by Wells Fargo Bank. The closing date is set for Sept. 15, according to the 24-page purchase agreement.
The agreement was signed last week, the same day the Legislature gave 90 days notice to the landlords for their current downtown building.
If the purchase proceeds as expected, lawmakers will move into the Spenard building in October, according to an aide to Sen. Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak.
Stevens chairs the Legislative Council, the joint House-Senate committee charged with finding office space for lawmakers.
The Legislature, meanwhile, still faces a formal claim for $37 million by the two developers of the downtown offices, Bob Acree and Mark Pfeffer.
The lease for that building was ruled illegal and invalid in March by Superior Court Judge Patrick McKay. But the developers say they're still owed money.
The Legislature has "received our claim and we await their performance under the due process that provides for that," said a spokesperson for the developers, Amy Slinker. "In the meantime, it's now clear that neither a legally approved and certified procurement, nor any resulting contract with the legislative branch of the state of Alaska, can be relied upon as a contract for performance," Slinker added. "Our bad for thinking so. Others should be cautious."