By Leslie Schneider and Kirsten Hytopoulos
The police-court facility is the biggest capital project to be undertaken by the city of Bainbridge Island in decades. The project was long overdue by the time the decision was made in 2018 to purchase and retrofit Harrison Medical Center. But now, just as building permits are about to be issued, that decision is being questioned again. Claims are being made that the city can save money by starting over.
There are four primary questions the City Council is hearing from the community. First, why did we pick Harrison? Second, are costs unreasonably high? Third, did we significantly overpay for the Harrison property? And, fourth, could we save money by starting over?
(1) Why Harrison? A review of alternatives considered by the city over the last 21 years is helpful in
understanding the reasoning behind the choice to purchase and repurpose the Harrison building.
*Existing site: Rebuilding the existing police station has consistently been projected as the most expensive and disruptive option.
*2000, Suzuki: The city purchased the Suzuki property at the corner of Sportsman and New Brooklyn to locate the facility there. The city decided in 2014 to focus on using the site for affordable housing.
*2014, Fire district: The option of co-locating with the fire district in conjunction with their rebuild of the Madison station was rejected by the City Council for several reasons, including concerns about becoming the tenant of another taxing district.
*2015, Next to City Hall: The land north of City Hall was given consideration and put on the ballot for a vote. That $15 million bond levy failed. (Note: $15 million was not total project cost.)
*2017, New Brooklyn: Adjacent to the rebuilt fire station, its construction cost estimates were high (~$30 million). The city entered into negotiations for its purchase, but the owners elected not to sell.
*2018, Yaquina: Construction costs were projected as high as $35 million, and the property is zoned residential, which created concerns about impacts on adjacent properties.
*2018, Harrison: The option of retrofitting the Harrison building arose. That property was selected for multiple reasons, including a total cost of $20 million and the environmental value of reusing an existing structure.
*2019, Visconsi: A conceptual proposal with a preliminary estimate of $18.2 million was submitted by the owners of property located near the corner of High School Road and Highway 305, just hours before the vote to proceed with negotiating for Harrison. The council
determined that the Harrison retrofit was a better option than going back to the drawing board yet again with a last-minute conceptual proposal by a developer with no experience building police facilities.
(2) Are total project costs unreasonably high? By choosing Harrison the city was able to lower total
estimated project costs from up to $35 million to $20 million, which included the purchase of the land, the building and renovations. Some critics have claimed that the city is building “the most expensive police station in the country,” but a review of recent similar projects shows that is untrue. For example, Salinas, CA (population 24,675) broke ground in March of last year on a new police headquarters with a construction cost of $56 million. Its population is almost the same as BI’s (24,846). Also, the City Council of Palo Alto, CA (population 66,573) just approved a $118 million public safety building. There are of course examples of less-expensive buildings, including the recently built $10.3 million police station in Selma, CA, but comparisons can be misleading. For example, the Selma project does not include a municipal court and the price tag does not include cost of the land.
(3) Did we pay too much for Harrison? The city obtained three appraisals for Harrison in 2018 and 2019 ranging from $7.04 million to $8.5 million. The seller provided a fourth, stating a value of $9.7 million. The City Council agreed to pay $8.975 million. Could the city have paid less by waiting the seller out? Possibly. But there was more at stake than the purchase price, including the civic obligation to move the project forward after more than two decades. This option also ensured that no new land would be cleared and an existing structure would be repurposed. Most importantly, the total project would come in up to 40% below any other fully scoped alternative.
Some critics say the city grossly overpaid, claiming the purchase price should have reflected that we were not purchasing the building for use as a medical facility. This assertion has drawn enough interest in the community that the City Council has unanimously agreed to have the valuation of the property reviewed.
(4) Could we save money by starting over? It seems unlikely, given the fact that we now own the Harrison building and have additionally invested over $700,000 in design and development. Could we lose years of progress and sunk costs and put the city back in risk-averse limbo while we try yet again to figure it out? Absolutely. It is likely for that reason that a majority of council members have not voiced support for reconsidering the decision to move forward with the current project.
However, the council has firmly committed to ensuring that the project come in on budget and has unanimously agreed to have projected costs validated. In researching similar projects in other cities, it is notable that the final decision is often a contentious split-council vote.
These big-ticket decisions will always be high stakes for public trust in elected officials and confidence in city government, and there will always be different points of view. With regard to our police-court facility, it appears that Harrison was the least-expensive and lowest-impact option for moving forward at the time the council made its decision, and that the most-responsible action now is to continue moving the project forward with a firm commitment to keeping project costs within its projected budget.
Leslie Schneider and Kirsten Hytopoulos are members of the Bainbridge Island City Council.
