The keys are now in the city’s possession and the plaque has been ordered, but the future of Bonney Lake’s new Interim Justice Center is anything but set.
Originally intended to spur building in the city’s downtown core with offices for city employees and retail space on the first floor, the administration and city council are considering a change of direction for the $4.2 million building.
“It makes a lot of sense now to use it in a different way,” Mayor Neil Johnson said. “Let’s find the right solution for the right time.”
The issue has come up again because the city council this month rejected a contract that would have placed investment company Edward Jones on the first floor of the new building.
Councilmembers worried that the business was not the type of pedestrian-friendly retail establishment they hoped would begin to generate foot traffic downtown.
But the discussion soon turned to whether it makes sense to lease the building at all or if the city would be better served by filling it with city employees, who presently share cramped spaces in city hall and the city’s planning annex.
City Administrator Don Morrison said the building as proposed was a stop-gap measure to house employees until a new city hall could be built. Morrison said since the current city hall was built in the 1970s, Bonney Lake has grown from a population of approximately 4,000 to the current size of about 17,000. With that, the number of city employees has risen from 40 to 134.
To house the additional workforce, the city moved the planning and permitting departments to the city hall annex on Main Street, which has also been expanded with the addition of a modular section, which costs the city approximately $1,000 per month.
Designed to help spur development, the 22,656-square-foot IJC was designed with the dual purpose of housing some city staff, but also including retail space on the first floor. The city then planned to move out of the building within 15 years, when a new city hall could be built.
Morrison said he pushed for the addition of retail space to help pay down the $650,000 per year debt service on the bonds for the building as well as act as an example of the type of development the city is hoping to attract to the downtown: pedestrian-friendly retail on the first floor, office space upstairs.
According to Executive Assistant Brian Hartsell, even the city’s courts had to get a conditional use permit to be allowed to be on the first floor.
“This is the first space that will be leased out on what will eventually be an entire space of commercial retail,” Hartsell said.
In December 2009, the city hired Caldwell Banker Commercial as the real estate broker for the IJC.
Edward Jones was the first business interested in the space.
But because the investment company is not the right fit and because of additional space needs by the staff, the city is now moving toward occupying the entire building itself, moving the planning staff out of the annex and into the new facility.
Plans now include the possibility of removing the modular building at the Annex, as well as its cost, and then potentially leasing the annex as retail space.
According to Hartsell, leasing out the annex space instead of the IJC could also solve parking issues at the new building, which may not have enough spaces for the needs of a coffee or sandwich shop as well as city needs, while the annex lot would be suitable.
“In the short run, certain businesses will have a parking challenge because of the nature of their business, over at the IJC,” Hartsell said. “The annex has less parking issues.”
“I think we have to be realistic,” Johnson said of businesses that could use the IJC retail space, adding that the Annex “Could be a good opportunity for somebody.”
Morrison said there was still some study to be done on leasing out the Annex, but generally it might be an easier, more affordable solution.
Several members of the city council also seem to have come around to the IJC becoming a city building.
“I know I’d rather the city be in one place,” Councilmember Randy McKibbin said this past week.
McKibbin added the business climate may no longer be conducive try and attract a new business, though if one is to come in, it should be the “right fit,” meaning a pedestrian-friendly retail establishment, rather than the investment offices.
Councilmember Jim Rackley agreed, but went a step further, saying he felt the city should not worry about attracting a business and simply move city employees into the new facility.
“We have suffered in that old building for so long and the annexes that’s it’s time to do something positive about it,” he said. “Our employees are really in a hard spot right now.”
Rackley said he thinks the city can find other ways to make up any lost revenue it was expecting from a lease.
“If we need the money that badly there’s other things we can do,” he said. “I think (the employees) need something to look forward to.”
Morrison and Johnson both said revenue from the IJC lease would not be factored into the next biennium budget, but it is in the city’s six-year financial model.
“If you don’t lease it out, obviously you’re not going to have enough revenue and that’s going to have to come from somewhere,” Morrison said.
Morrison and Johnson both said they expect city employees to start moving into the new building early next spring.
