Auburn is preparing a major overhaul of the heating, cooling and hot-water systems serving three downtown municipal buildings after years of leaks, equipment failures and growing difficulty finding replacement parts.
The City Council will consider authorizing a state grant application Thursday that could cover $962,500 of the $2.75 million project. The remaining cost has already been authorized through city borrowing, though officials have made clear that securing outside funding is necessary to reduce the local burden.
The work would affect Memorial City Hall at 24 South St., the Auburn Police Department headquarters at 46 North St. and the Auburn City Ambulance facility at 23 Market St. Together, the buildings rely on geothermal systems that city officials say have reached the end of their useful lives.
The proposal is the first phase of what Auburn is calling its Centennial Building Project, a broader effort to modernize City Hall and related municipal facilities before the building’s 100th anniversary in 2030.
City Hall opened in 1930.
What needs to be replaced
Auburn installed its current City Hall geothermal system in 2003, replacing steam radiators with 72 heat pumps. A separate system installed in 2005 serves the police and ambulance headquarters and includes 90 heat pumps.
Geothermal wells were installed beneath parking areas near both locations. The wells transfer heat between the buildings and the ground, while individual heat pumps distribute heating and cooling throughout the facilities.
The underlying geothermal approach is not being abandoned. Instead, the city plans a deep retrofit of the HVAC and domestic hot-water infrastructure connected to it.
Officials have described an increasingly unreliable collection of aging units. Some have leaked, others have caught fire and replacement parts have become difficult to obtain as the equipment has aged.
The heat pumps represent the largest single component of the project. Replacing them is expected to cost about $1.62 million, or nearly 59% of the full project budget.
The remaining work would cover related controls, piping, hot-water equipment and other improvements needed to modernize the systems across the three buildings.
How the project would be paid for
City Council approved borrowing authority of up to $2.75 million in June through Bond Ordinance No. 2 of 2026. That authorization allows Auburn to finance the project but does not require the city to absorb the entire cost without assistance.
The grant resolution before council Thursday would authorize staff to apply through the state’s Consolidated Funding Application process for the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority’s Building Cleaner Communities Competition.
The state has allocated $25 million to the program, which supports significant municipal projects designed to create all-electric, carbon-neutral and resilient buildings.
Municipal geothermal projects are eligible in the 2026 funding round. Auburn could receive assistance equal to 35% of eligible project costs, producing a maximum award of $962,500 for the $2.75 million first phase.
Applications are due Aug. 14.
Under the proposed resolution, the city’s director of capital projects would be authorized to submit the application. If funding is awarded, the mayor or a designee could execute the grant agreement, while the city comptroller would recognize the revenue and place it into the appropriate capital account.
Without the grant, the city could still proceed under the borrowing authorization. City officials, however, said Auburn does not currently have the resources to pay the full cost of the first phase without state support.
Why the project qualifies
The three buildings are located within Auburn’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative district and serve residents citywide.
City documents also note that parts of Auburn are classified by the state as a potential environmental justice area and disadvantaged community, designations that can strengthen applications for clean-energy and resiliency funding.
The project is intended to lower municipal energy use while improving the reliability of buildings that house city administration, police operations and emergency medical services.
Those are not facilities that can simply shut down when heating or cooling equipment fails. Police and ambulance operations run around the clock, while City Hall houses government offices and public services used throughout the week.
Councilor Craig Diego described the work as a necessity when council approved the borrowing authorization in June, saying municipal employees cannot be expected to work without reliable HVAC systems.
Mayor Jimmy Giannettino also pointed to the project’s inclusion in Auburn’s five-year capital plan, emphasizing that the work was identified through long-range planning rather than developed as an unexpected expense.
An 18-month construction process
The city expects the HVAC work to take about 18 months.
That schedule accounts for engineering, equipment selection, bidding, municipal procurement requirements and construction across occupied public buildings.
Although officials have discussed moving quickly to limit the risk of further price increases or equipment failures, Auburn must follow competitive bidding and public purchasing rules. That limits the city’s ability to accelerate the project in the same way a private property owner might.
The city has not released a construction start date. Timing will depend in part on council authorization, completion of the state application, the grant decision and the procurement process.
Maintaining operations during construction will also be a major consideration. City Hall, police headquarters and the ambulance facility cannot all be taken offline for extended periods, meaning work will likely need to be phased around employees and public services.
More work planned beyond HVAC
The geothermal modernization is only the first phase of the Centennial Building Project.
Future phases are expected to focus on City Hall’s exterior envelope and energy performance. The city’s capital plan identifies window replacements and energy-efficient lighting as additional priorities.
Those improvements could reduce heat loss, lower electricity use and allow the new HVAC equipment to operate more efficiently. Auburn plans to pursue additional NYSERDA assistance for that work rather than include it in the current $2.75 million phase.
The larger strategy is to avoid installing new mechanical equipment in a building that continues to lose energy through aging windows, lighting and other exterior components.
City officials are tying that work to the 2030 centennial, but the immediate concern is functional rather than ceremonial: keeping core municipal buildings safe, reliable and affordable to operate.
The City Council meeting begins at 5 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 6, at Memorial City Hall and can be watched live on the city’s website.
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