Kent City Council seeks City Hall remodeling costs

Kent city staff should know this fall the estimated cost to remodel four city buildings to provide more office space.

That cost estimate will help determine whether the City Council decides to send a property tax measure to voters to pay for the renovation.

The City Council approved a $168,364 contract with Seattle-based ARC Architects on April 5 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.

“This project ties back to the failed police capital bond in November 2014 when 53 percent (of voters) said they wanted police to have a newer more spacious facility but we fell short of 60 percent (needed to pass),” said Derek Matheson, city chief administrative officer, in a report to the council’s Operations Committee on March 15. “This is an attempt to meet police department needs by better use of the City Hall campus and also increase efficiency of other departments by modernizing the layout.”

The consultant’s study is expected to be completed this fall, Parks Director Jeff Watling told the committee.

“We talked at a high level how to fund this project and one option might be a ballot measure,” Matheson said. “This will give us a reliable enough number that if that’s the direction council chose, we could put it on the ballot and design to that number and complete the project.”

Voters turned down a bond measure 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.

ARC Architects presented a City Hall Space Efficiency Study to the council last fall about how it could create more space for police and other city employees. The council paid $40,193 to ARC Architects last year for that initial study.

“That study concluded through more efficiencies in space we could really solve our space needs and set us up for growth,” Watling said. “Council directed to go to phase two (of the study) and dig into more details. This will look at structural and mechanical engineering to get more detailed cost estimates to determine funding.”

The city has about 125,000 square feet of office space spread among City Hall, the Centennial Center, the police station and the City Hall annex.

The study showed the potential to increase space for the police department to about 33,000 square feet from 22,000 square feet, in part by replacing a breezeway between City Hall and the police station with an office building and moving Council Chambers from City Hall to the first floor of the Centennial Building.