The Fournet Building has received the official Certificate of Occupancy from the city to allow occupancy for the second and third floors of the building, which has allowed the Tri-Valley Opportunity Council to begin moving their entire business into the new building.
Crookston Building Official Greg Hefta had already awarded a minor form of a Certificate of Occupancy to Tri-Valley in late September to allow them to use a small office space near the south side of Robert Street to let them move a server for their fiscal operations into the new building and continue work there, but now is beginning to move the rest of its departments to the building.
“The process has been ongoing for a while. We’ve actually had staff here since September. We had to move a server that was related to our fiscal operations, and the staff had to move with the server. So, we received permission to have some staff here starting, I believe on September 25, and subsequently, as Jeff Evers got more of the Health and Safety and HVAC systems finished up, we were able to have our Human Resources department move a month or so ago,” Tri-Valley CEO Jason Carlson explained. “So we’ve had some staff operating here for a while now, but we received the Certificate last week, and now the remaining staff are getting their offices set up and are able to move about the space freely.”
With the Certificate now, Tri-Valley will move the rest of its departments into its new building across the street from its old building over the next several weeks and will make an official announcement when they are entirely moved in. While Tri-Valley is moving into its new building, they are still working with people who need help or referrals at its current office at 102 North Broadway. However, they are starting to have items delivered to the new building and notice some major differences with their new building compared to their old one. Mainly with it having more windows to allow more light into offices and break rooms to make it more welcoming and having insulation to help keep the building warm.
A major difference the Tri-Valley Opportunity Council will have is they will have to share the building with the State of Minnesota for the Public Defenders on the third floor and other starting businesses, which they look forward to interacting with.
“It’ll be interesting and different for us. We own the building across the street that we’re currently in and have been the sole occupant of that building for over 30 years, so this is new for Tri-Valley. We will have to think differently about how we go about our business and certain things like, for instance, an open house,” said Carlson. “We know there’s curiosity about this space out in the public and community, so we’d like to invite folks to come in and see the space, but instead of us just deciding what’s going to happen, we’re going to have to coordinate with our neighbors. Things like that will be a bit of a change for us, but it’ll be a welcome change.”
There aren’t any set dates or plans for an open house yet, but Tri-Valley thinks they will have some open houses in the summer once everything has been moved into the new building.
As for their current building, Tri-Valley is unsure of what they will do with the building once they officially move into the Fournet building, but it has been discussed by the Tri-Valley board.
“Tri-Valley’s board has decided that we will hold onto it for the rest of the winter into spring, and then we will reevaluate what our options are at that time,” said Carlson.”
Stay tuned to KROX and kroxam.com for more news about the Fournet building and its official opening and events.
