Thurston County reviews potential options for new courthouse in Olympia. Here’s what to know
Thurston County is considering three options for building a new courthouse, but questions remain about how it will get funded.
The county has outgrown its aging courthouse campus on Lakeridge Drive in Olympia. To address the matter, the Board of County Commissioners has convened a three-commissioner subcommittee that has met over the last several weeks.
So far, the committee has discussed three potential options for building a new courthouse. They are expected to make a recommendation to the full board following a final meeting on Friday.
If the board ultimately decides to build a new courthouse campus, it would represent a major pivot from in-progress plans to renovate the current campus with a $50 million bond.
Such a move would also require a novel funding solution. The commission could ask voters to approve a property tax increase to pay for a new courthouse that could cost upwards of $430 million, according to county documents.
The commission also could pursue a lease-to-own option or a public-private partnership, both of which will be subject of discussion at the subcommittee’s final meeting.
“It really comes down to what’s the funding component,” County Manager Leonard Hernandez said at the second subcommittee meeting. “What does the county have as capacity?”
The campus needs many repairs because it was built in the late 1970s with a life-expectancy of about three decades, according to the county. Back then, the county’s population was less than half of the over 300,000 people that call it home today.
Here’s what to know about the three options and how the county got to this point.
What options are being considered?
Rick Thomas, capital projects planning manager for Thurston County, briefed the board on three options with several variations during the subcommittee’s July 5 meeting.
“Just a note to be made, whether or not it’s lease to own, public-private partnership or we get funding from some other source, that doesn’t particularly change the different options that we’re looking at here,” Thomas said.
The first option is to build in downtown or suburban Olympia. There are three ways this could play out.
- The county could build a new courthouse and renovate buildings 1-3 at its current courthouse campus for administrative functions. The county may choose to sell some or all of its remaining buildings, which are numbered 4-7. Alternatively, the county could lease out those buildings to keep them in the county inventory.
- The county could build a new courthouse and purchase an existing adjacent office building to house administrative functions. The county could then sell some or all of its current courthouse campus buildings or lease them out to keep in the county inventory.
- The county could build a new courthouse and administrative building. The county may then sell some or all of its buildings at its current courthouse campus or lease them out to keep them in the county inventory.
The second option is to build on a block of the hilltop where buildings 4, 6 and 7 of the current courthouse campus are located. The county would then have to decide what to do with the remaining buildings.
- The county could build a new courthouse on the block and renovate buildings 1-3 for administrative functions while demolishing buildings 4, 6 and 7. Building 5 could then be sold or leased out to keep it in the county inventory. A parking garage may need to be built on the same block or on an existing parking lot.
- The county could build a new courthouse and administrative building on the block. This would require demolishing buildings 4, 6 and 7 and constructing a parking garage across the street from an existing parking lot. Buildings 1-3 could be sold and building 5 could be sold or leased out.
The third option is to build on the hilltop where building 1 and an adjacent parking lot are located.
- The county could build a new courthouse at the location and then renovate buildings 2 and 3 for administrative functions. Buildings 4, 6 and 7 could then be demolished to build a parking lot or garage as needed. Building 5 could be sold or leased out to keep it in the county inventory.
- The county could build a new courthouse and administrative building at the location, demolish buildings 2 and 3 and construct a parking garage. The county may choose to sell or lease out some or all of buildings 4-7.
How much will this cost the county?
Thomas provided the subcommittee with a high-level cost comparison between three of the options. The following estimates only include design and construction costs assuming the mid-point of construction is 2028.
“This doesn’t take into account any property we may have to buy, nor does it take into account any property that we own that we may sell,” Thomas said.
Building a new courthouse and administrative building in downtown Olympia may cost about $430 million, Thomas said.
A new courthouse on the hilltop block, where buildings 4, 6 and 7 are located, and renovating buildings 1-3 for administrative offices may cost about $450 million, he said.
Lastly, he said building a new courthouse and administrative building where building 1 is located may cost about $470 million.
These costs are much higher than a 2019 proposal for a new courthouse campus in downtown Olympia. Thomas said that proposal would have cost about $280 million to $300 million at the time.
Building a new courthouse and administrative building could also free the county from some costly leases. The costliest would be the lease of The Atrium at 3000 Pacific Ave. SE in Olympia.
The county moved its administrative offices to the Atrium in December 2022 after signing a seven-year lease that runs through May 31, 2029, according to county documents. Thomas said the county will have spent about $8.6 million on rent and $3.8 million on maintenance and operations by the end of the lease period.
However, the county has the option to extend the lease twice for five-year periods. If the county does that, the county would spend about $41.3 million on rent as well as maintenance and operations costs.
Notably, the county also leases a building at 2404 Chandler Court SW in Olympia that it uses for jury trials. The county leased the building in 2020 to help meet courtroom space needs.
Thomas said that lease expires on Oct. 31, 2027. By then, the county would have spent about $1.7 million on rent as well as maintenance and operations.
How did the county get to this point?
This isn’t the first time the county has considered building a new courthouse campus.
The county planned to ask voters to approve a property tax increase in April 2020 to pay for a new $250 million courthouse, but the commission withdrew those plans in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
That courthouse would have been constructed in collaboration with the City of Olympia at the site of the city’s Lee Creighton Justice Center on Plum Street. That site used to house Olympia City Hall before the new building at Fourth and Cherry was constructed.
The property tax increase would have cost the owner of a $300,000 home about $12 more per month, according to the county. However, the levy increases exempted people who were qualified seniors, disabled or veterans.
In March 2021, then-County Manager Ramiro Chavez presented the commission with a “Plan B” to meet the county’s urgent space needs.
His proposal called for moving general government offices out of the current courthouse campus and into a leased office building. From there, the courthouse campus could be renovated into a new law and justice center.
In October 2021, the commission decided to lease The Atrium in a 2-1 vote. The lease began on April 1, 2022, and county offices and departments completed their move-in by December 2022.
In June 2022, the commission voted 2-1 again to approve a $50 million bond resolution for the remodel and reorganize its courthouse campus.
On June 17, the commission voted 4-1 to pause its remodel project for a month while a subcommittee of three commissioners met to discuss alternative options.
This decision was prompted by concern among commissioners that the remodel project only had enough funding to satisfy current space needs without undertaking much-needed infrastructure improvements.
So far, the county has spent about $4.8 million of its $50 million budget on the courthouse campus, Thomas said. Commissioner Wayne Fournier, who chairs the subcommittee, called the situation “madness.”
“This renovates a building that will get us like five to seven years,” Fournier said. “But in five to seven years, we’re going to have to do something else because we’re going to have to move all these people here (at The Atrium).”
If no alternative is found, Fournier said the county may be obligated to get into, as he put it, “insane” lease extensions for The Atrium.
How can you get involved?
The courthouse campus subcommittee will meet for a final time at 3 p.m. Friday, July 26, at The Atrium at 3000 Pacific Ave. SE. The meeting is open to the public and will be recorded but not livestreamed.
Anyone interested in obtaining the recordings can contact Amy Davis, Clerk of the Board, at amy.davis@co.thurston.wa.us.
Anyone with questions about the project can contact Communications Manager Meghan Porter at meghan.porter@co.thurston.wa.us.
The Board of County Commissioners accepts public comments at the start of every regular Tuesday board meeting.
A calendar of upcoming meetings can be found on the county’s website. The next regular meeting has been scheduled for July 30.
This story was originally published July 25, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
