City leaders will sit down at a special meeting at 5:30 p.m. Monday, Jan. 25 at Auburn City Hall to discuss and then vote on whether to purchase the old Public Health building on Auburn Avenue North from King County.

Administrator Dana Hinman said that if the answer is yes, the purchase and development agreement would then return to the King County Council for final action.

Should the deal work out, the arts division of the Auburn Parks, Arts and Recreation Department will occupy most of the space.

The City already has a grant application into King County’s 4Culture for up to half of whatever the purchase price would be for improvements.

“So, it’s not only an opportunity to purchase but to have a nice outside cash flow to make the improvements we want. We are going to run some art space out of there,” Hinman recently told the Auburn Reporter.

The building started out life in 1937 as the Auburn Post Office. King County acquired it in 1963 when the new post office was built.

In 2009, King County put the Carnegie building up for sale on the open market. Asking price — about $620,000.

At the time, the City, in its determination to lease the building, consistently reminded county leaders why Andrew Carnegie had built and donated it in the first place, and what he intended it to stay in perpetuity — a general community benefit.

That was a bit more than what the City was offering to lease it for at the time — the same one buck for which King County had acquired it.

Despite the chill that descended over negotiations with the county, City leaders kept at it behind the scenes.

The City of Auburn late last year submitted a letter of intent to purchase.

Auburn Economic Development Director Doug Lein has been in close contact with King County’s real estate division.