Photo by Deb Gau Marshall city staff say the demolition of the former Marshall Hotel has revealed problems where the hotel walls adjoined its two neighbors. At the left of this photo, it was found one of the city hall walls was not built square. On the right, the hotel wall and foundation were bearing on Mainstay Cafe. The city plans to build new foundations for and stabilize the Mainstay wall.

MARSHALL — Some big changes have been happening on Main Street this summer, with one of the most recent being the demolition of the former Marshall Hotel building. But Marshall city staff said tearing down the hotel has also revealed some new challenges, affecting both of the hotel site’s next-door neighbors.

Demolition workers found that one of the hotel walls and its foundation were load-bearing for the Mainstay Cafe building, city staff said Tuesday. Staff recommended that part of the hotel wall stay in place, and other steps be taken to help stabilize both it and the cafe.

The second thing that was revealed by demolition was that one of the walls of the Marshall city hall building is not square. It might be easier to continue remodeling work at City Hall if the existing wall is knocked down and rebuilt straight, staff said.

The recommendations were discussed as part of a building update at the Marshall City Council meeting on Tuesday.

“For better than a week, staff and the City Hall committee has been discussing the Mainstay wall that is currently left in place, and then also what I would call the south end of the city hall,” said Marshall City Administrator Sharon Hanson.

“With the demo, we found that we basically got two issues,” said chief building official Ray Henriksen. “One being the Mainstay wall, and then the City Hall wall.”

As demolition of the Marshall Hotel building went on, it was found that the structure of Mainstay Cafe is bearing on the wall connecting Mainstay and the former hotel, Henriksen said. “So by demolishing that wall and foundation, we would have jeopardized the integrity of the Mainstay wall.”

After further review, Henriksen said it was determined that the best thing to do would be to keep the old wall as it is, and build a new footing and foundation for it. A new wall would also be built up to the cafe’s roofline, to help connect the two structures together and keep the hotel wall from shifting.

“That design still needs to be made,” Henriksen said. Until then, he said, the city needed to support the old hotel wall until the new foundation could be built.

Demolition of the hotel building also revealed that the south wall of City Hall was not square, Hanson said. The city hall building was actually seven inches narrower on the end facing Main Street than it was on the end facing the rear alley.

Henriksen said after talking with the contractors, it was recommended that the existing cinder block wall on the south side of the city hall building be knocked down, and rebuilt straight.

Hanson said the changes to the two building projects would be “well within” the council’s policies for change orders, but city staff wanted to update the council, due to the highly visible nature of the City Hall and hotel demolition projects.

“As we get into this, I know cost comes up,” said City Council and building committee member James Lozinski. Lozinski said he had discussed the project with local contractors. As far as the City Hall wall went, he said, “We probably will either be net neutral, or it might even be a cost savings to remove that block wall, and just build that one wall and straighten this building out.”

Hanson said there might be some cost involved to do structural engineering work on the Mainstay wall project, but she did not yet know what it would be.

While the hotel demolition and the renovations at City Hall are two separate projects, “Both walls may counterbalance each other in terms of cost, except for use of a structural engineer,” she said.

Henriksen said the building committee and city staff wanted direction on stabilizing the Mainstay wall, as well as getting someone to design and construct the new foundations.

Even though the issues with the Mainstay and City Hall walls were brought up as an information item, Marshall Mayor Bob Byrnes said the city council might want to pass a motion approving staff recommendations about removing the existing City Hall wall, and to approve authorization for professional services to stabilize the Mainstay Cafe wall.

“I’d like to have more information, more cost estimates . . . before I would approve anything like this,” said council member Glenn Bayerkohler.

“We have to have faith in our staff at this point,” Lozinski said. The contractors on the projects can’t afford to wait another two weeks for council action, he said.

Council members approved the motion 6-1, with Bayerkohler casting the vote against.