Thurston Co. to buy $2.5 million property for Sheriff’s Office near headquarters
Thurston County intends to buy another Tumwater property for the Sheriff’s Office, this time for $2.5 million.
The property is located at 7721 New Market St. SW, which is just west of the Olympia Regional Airport and less than a mile southeast of the Sheriff’s new headquarters at 1111 Israel Road.
The Sheriff’s Office had already been leasing the property for many years, Sheriff Derek Sanders told The Olympian Tuesday. Before moving into the new headquarters, patrol deputies worked out of this facility and the Sheriff’s Office still stores its own vehicles, impounded vehicles and large evidence there, Sanders said. By buying the property, the Sheriff’s Office can save on long-term lease costs and avoid paying more for new property or construction, he said.
“I do think there’s value in the public owning assets,” Sanders said. “I’m not a real big fan of government renting things, unless it’s a very short-term solution, just because no equity builds. So, I think the board’s making a good decision here. We have to have the space somehow.”
The Board of County Commissioners publicly reviewed the proposed acquisition during a Tuesday morning work session. The review came after months of closed-door executive sessions, Commissioner and Board Chair Tye Menser said at the meeting.
A formal vote is expected during the July 21 board meeting.
The county signed onto a purchase and sale agreement for the property with J/4 Associates on May 29, according to Central Services Director Kim Burnett and county documents. If the board approves of the acquisition, the county will move forward with closing the purchase.
“The acquisition includes a ground lease with the Port of Olympia and a leasehold interest in the existing improvements on the property,” county documents state.
Sanders said the Port will still own the ground around the property under the terms of the agreement.
The purchase price will be paid for with money from the county’s Public Safety Sales Tax, a 0.2% sales tax that voters approved in the 2023 general election.
The county used about $14.3 million in revenue to acquire the Sheriff’s Office’s new 56,000-square-foot headquarters in a deal that closed last year, The Olympian previously reported. The Sheriff’s Office fully moved into the property earlier this year.
Sanders said the county considered moving its evidence and vehicle storage to the new headquarters but county staff deemed it unfeasible.
“When we moved into the new headquarters building, there was enough space for all of our personnel, but we would have had to do new construction on the property for some sort of warehouse to store our armored vehicle and our boats and all those large items,” Sanders said.
The cost of the new headquarters, including renovations, came in under budget, Sanders said, allowing the county to purchase the Market Street property. The county previously budgeted about $20 million for the headquarters project, he said.
“We won’t have to pay for moving costs,” Sanders said. “We’re already there. It already has an alarm. It’s a great facility for storage of large items. It just was never really a great facility to actually house personnel for a full operation because it doesn’t have very much office space.”
County Manager Leonard Hernandez said the county had been searching for a storage site for the Sheriff’s Office for years. When the property went up for sale, he said the county was faced with potentially building from scratch or entering into a new lease somewhere else.
“I’m very proud of the staff for the work they did in the negotiation process because, based on the appraisal, staff were able to secure this site under the market value,” Hernandez said. “… Quite a bit of analysis went into determining that this was the best location.”
When asked if he hopes to improve the New Market Street property, Sanders said there’s potential for improvements but there are no immediate plans.
“I do believe in the future, there could be some use for some of the office space and things like that, but right now, all our needs are taken care of,” Sanders said.
