Kent continues to study remodeling City Hall for more space

Kent city officials are still trying to determine whether remodeling several city buildings can provide enough space for police, public works, parks and other departments.

“We’re looking to see if there is a way to use existing square footage to handle ongoing needs and into the future,” said Garin Lee, city interim parks co-director who also oversees facilities, in a Sept. 6 report to the City Council.

The city hired Seattle-based ARC Architects 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 to create more space, especially for the police department.

Voters turned down a bond measure in 2014 to build a new police station at a cost of $34 million at the same location as the current facility, which was last remodeled in 1991 to handle 75 officers. The police department has nearly 150 officers and hopes to get to 165 officers by 2020.

City officials are considering remodeling options rather than a new facility. The council approved a contract last year of $40,000 for the first phase of the study and heard a report in November from ARC Architects that a remodeling plan to use space more efficiently could work. The council has since approved a $168,000 contract with the consultant for the second phase of the study to come up with a more specific plan and the costs.

“We have a basic concept about police staff and how they would fit on the campus,” said Alex Ackley, city facilities superintendent, to the council. “We will continue work over the next four to six months to see if we need to build extra square footage or if we can do it in the existing space.”

In addition to remodeling City Hall, city staff in a separate study will work with another consultant to determine whether the Russell Road maintenance shop needs to be expanded to handle its 180 public works and parks employees, vehicle storage and other storage needs.

City parks staff also uses a small shop on the East Hill where Kent initially planned to build a new operations center but the council later backed out of that plan. The nearly 20 acres sits south of Southeast 248th Street and Clark Lake Park, and east of 120th Avenue Southeast. The city bought the property for a new maintenance shop but now has considered possibly selling the 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.

“These are similar to the City Hall studies examining the space needs for the operations groups,” Lee said in an email. “The phase II portion is slightly different since we are looking at an overall site fit for the operations groups whereas the City Hall phase II looks at internal building layouts.”

The Russell Road site is about 6 acres and the city needs about 2 more acres for additional space, Lee said. The study will look at whether needs would be better served with a new facility at another site, possibly the East Hill property. The council hasn’t made any decision about whether to sell that land.

Lee said parks staff would like at least a satellite facility on East Hill because it’s closer to often-served facilities, such as Lake Meridian Park and athletic complexes at Wilson Playfields and the Service Club Ballfields.

The current small shop on the East Hill started out as a temporary facility until a new maintenance shop opened. Lee said that temporary facility is now in its eighth year.

Council members Dennis Higgins and Jim Berrios asked Lee to look at 2 acres at Hogan Park at Russell Road for potential expansion of the Russell Road maintenance shop.

Lee said he expects to have more details for the council about the maintenance shop studies in six to eight weeks.