Kent continues study to remodel City Hall for more police space

Kent city staff and consultants continue to study remodeling four city buildings to provide more office space for the police department.

If the City Council approves a plan and finds funds to pay for it, the police department would expand into the first two floors of City Hall. The Council Chambers would shift to the city’s Centennial Center, just across a parking lot from City Hall.

The council approved a $168,364 contract with Seattle-based ARC Architects last April to come up with a conceptual design and the estimated costs to remodel City Hall, the police station, the Centennial building and the City Hall annex.

“This was a project we started in 2014 when we went out for a bond measure to build a new police building to accommodate our police staff needs because they are really packed in to a small facility,” said Alex Ackley, city facilities superintendent, at a March 21 council workshop.

Voters turned down the 2014 bond measure at a cost of $34 million. The plan was to rebuild at the same location as the current police station, which was last remodeled in 1991 to handle 75 officers. The police department has about 150 officers and hopes to get to 165 officers by 2020. Detectives work in the Centennial Center because of a lack of space at the police station.

“We had to look at what our other options are,” Ackley said about the bond measure failure.

So the city hired ARC Architects to study the City Hall campus to see if it had room to accommodate more police space. The consultant study showed it could be done, Ackley said. The proposal includes a new 5,500-square-foot building between City Hall and the police station to provide additional space.

The city has about 125,000 square feet of office space spread among City Hall, the Centennial Center, the police station and the City Hall annex. The consultant study showed the potential to increase space for the police department to about 33,000 square feet from 22,000 square feet.

The mayor’s staff and city clerk’s office would move from City Hall to the Centennial Center’s fourth floor. The Council Chambers also would get a new spot on the first floor of the Centennial building.

“I think that’s something we are all going to enjoy,” Ackley said about a new meeting location for the council. “It’s really going to create a nice civic space in Centennial that all of us here will enjoy and the residents of Kent will enjoy.”

City staff expects to return in July to the council with a final design plan as well as the remodeling cost.

Then the council will need to figure out a way to pay for the project. City staff has discussed a potential bond measure as one option.

Maintenance shops

City staff also is looking into potential changes to the Russell Road maintenance shops in the Valley and will report to the council in July with options and cost estimates. The shop has about 180 public works and parks employees and provides storage for city vehicles and other items.

City officials must figure out whether to remodel the existing shop to create more space for public works and parks; expand the current site or build a new facility at another site, possibly on the East Hill.

The city had planned to build a new maintenance shop many years ago at property the city owns near Southeast 248th Street before city leaders dropped the plans because of the high costs and other needs.

The council also has considered possibly selling the East Hill property to a developer.

The costs for the East Hill and Russell Road operations facility space studies are $17,000 for the first phase and $40,000 for the second phase, each done by McKinsey, a Seattle-based consultant.

The Russell Road site is about 6 acres and the city needs about 2 more acres to accommodate employees and storage needs, according to city staff.