City officials have been looking at the potential purchase of the Harrison Bainbridge Urgent Care building as a new home for the Bainbridge Island Police Department.
The building at 8804 Madison Avenue North is owned by CHI Franciscan Health and joins a short list of just two properties under consideration by the city of Bainbridge Island as a location for a new public safety building. The existing medical office building was constructed in 2014 and has 17,548 square feet of space.
Bainbridge Island City Council members were briefed on the potential sites during their study session Tuesday.
Bainbridge has been seeking a new location for a new public safety building since September 2017, after attempts to buy the Coultas property on NE New Brooklyn Road fell through following the death of the landowner.
Retrofitting Harrison’s Bainbridge facility for use as a combined police station/municipal court, however, comes with a hefty price tag.
Coates Design Architects, the city’s consultants on the new police station, have estimated that it will cost $15.8 million to turn the medical office building into a police station/court.
That estimate includes a two-story addition for a court building at a potential cost of $4.6 million, as well as $1 million for below-grade parking.
Total project costs — not including acquisition — is estimated at $25.6 million.
The 3.02-acre site was purchased by CHI Franciscan Health in August 2013 for $1.75 million.
City officials said they received an unsolicited offer from CHI several months ago that suggested a potential retrofit of the building, and city consultants have since conducted site investigations, project scoping and cost estimates on such an effort.
The other potential site for a new public safety building is also adjacent to Highway 305, and is known as the Yaquina site. The property lies between NE Yaquina Avenue and Madison Avenue North.
Construction and project costs for the Yaquina site are higher than the Harrison center estimates, according to the city’s consultants.
Building a combined police station/municipal court on the Yaquina property is estimated at $21.7 million, with total project costs expected to be $34 million — not including land-acquisition costs.
The estimates are not set in stone, Deputy City Manager Morgan Smith told the council. The cost of the city’s new public safety facility will hinge on what officials eventually decide to build.
“Those estimates do not reflect project cost,” she said. “That doesn’t mean that’s what we need to build.”
Actual costs will depend on the features of the approved design, including things such as different finishes and technology, as well as the choice on management of the project, and other factors.
Consultants noted that the Yaquina site would be a good fit for both a police station and courthouse, and construction could be limited to a one-level facility.
The Harrison site also earned a thumb’s up in terms of location, but consultants said the property needs a secondary emergency access point, and added that a seismic upgrade would require a complete demolition of the interior of the building and roof.
The police station and courthouse would also be split between two floors, and the size of the property is too small for a gun range.
The potential cost of a new police station to replace the badly aging facility on Winslow Way has been steadily climbing in recent years.
In 2014, the city estimated the cost for a new building at $10.1 million.
The following year, the city put a $15 million bond request on the ballot for a new police station, proposed for just north of city hall. That proposition received a landslide rejection by voters, however, in November 2015.
