The offices for Health and Human Services will soon come full circle. The board’s unanimous vote Thursday to internally finance moving the offices from Oak Park Mall to vacant space in Government Center won’t mark the first time the offices are downtown.

The offices were located in the basement of the Government Center, where Interim Public Health Director Lisa Kocer said they were cramped.

The offices soon moved to the North Main location, where they had adequate space, according to Kocer.

So how did the offices end up at Oak Park Mall?

The offices for Health and Human Services first moved to the mall as a community effort to help Hormel Foods Corp. produce more local jobs, according to Development Corporation of Austin Executive Director John Garry.

“It was a time when Hormel had a likelihood of adding some corporate jobs and needed space,” said Garry, who noted various local entities often pitch in to help on such projects.

The old offices for Health and Human Services were renovated as part of the building that is now Hormel corporate south. Currently at the mall, the county is paying rent to the DCA, which in turn pays the mall.

The DCA is the lease holder because it paid the original loan to renovate the space to house Health and Human Services when the county sold the North Main offices to Hormel.

The county pays more than $250,000 per year in repayments of loans, utilities, taxes and rent costs to the DCA.

Still, Garry said, the move isn’t a big factor of interest to the DCA. Since the move won’t take place until near the end of the 10-year lease at the mall, the DCA’s loan should be completely paid back.

With the county voting to move downtown, the offices at the mall will go back to mall and would not remain with the DCA.

Though there are no plans being discussed, Garry said he’s open to the idea of using the mall space for future development, should there be any interest.

“I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of developing it,” Garry said.