Совет Спокэйна одобрил покупку комплекса для уголовно-правовой системы за 18,5 млн долларов

Spokane moves forward with $18.5 million criminal justice campus, enters 90-day review Spokane will move ahead with a 90-day due diligence period ahead of potentially purchasing a new criminal justice campus, including a 236,00-square-foot office, an accompanying parking structure and a nearby vacant lot that could be redeveloped. The Spokane City Council approved the move 6-1 Tuesday morning during a special meeting, with Councilman Michael Cathcart as the sole dissenting vote. During the due diligence period, the city will explore the building’s potential liabilities and investigate whether existing tenants are happy with their current arrangement. If the deal goes through, the city would pay $18.5 million for the properties, which includes roughly $2 million in expected renovations. It’s a steep discount, given the Rock Pointe East office building by itself sold for $17.2 million in 2005 and was valued at $32.9 million in 2023, evidence of the sharp decline in the value of commercial real estate following the COVID-19 pandemic. “The pricing reflects kind of the bottom of the barrel of Spokane for what we would see for similar quality,” said Michael Sharapata, senior managing director for real estate firm JLL, during a Tuesday presentation to the council. Only roughly 40% of the office space is currently occupied by tenants, collectively paying rents “effectively equivalent to the operating costs of the building,” which the city hopes to keep on after purchasing it, Sharapata and city officials noted Tuesday. If finalized, City Hall expects to pay for the purchase with an internal loan, dipping into the city’s Spokane Investment Pool, which will need to be paid back at a rate of approximately $1.5 million to $2 million per year. The city currently spends roughly $1.2 million annually on three leases for buildings that house some of the criminal justice services that would be consolidated in the new campus. These include the county-owned Public Safety Building, which is located behind the county courthouse and houses both Spokane Municipal Court and the Spokane Police Department’s administrative and investigative wings; and Monroe Court, which houses the city’s community justice services and pre-trial services. The third lease is for 824 Monroe, which houses the city’s public defender, and which the city sold in March. That building was leased back to the city for one year at roughly $190,000 per year with options to extend the lease. The city has been eyeing a new facility for at least its municipal court for more than a decade, pointing to unsafe conditions, including overcrowding and mold. A proposal to purchase a 103,000-square-foot campus for $14 million, including three office buildings and a parking garage owned by Premera Blue Cross, died in 2023 amid cost concerns. “I want to say, as a former prosecutor, I’ve had a chance to really familiarize myself with our criminal justice system and the deficiencies it has,” Councilwoman Kate Telis said Tuesday. “There are numerous safety concerns for judges and attorneys and people who are currently in custody.” The Brown administration hopes to consolidate its non-patrol criminal justice services into a single building and also use the additional room to expand, including to meet new caseload standards that will require the city to hire additional public defenders or to add additional diversion and case management services. By integrating more services in one location, Brown argued, there would be “fewer failures to appear in court, easier hand-offs to appropriate services and the ability to ultimately integrate our growing coordinated crisis response teams into this system.” Despite the upfront and mid-term costs, Brown also believes the investment would save the city money in the long term. Cathcart agreed that the investment may be good in the long run and would be beneficial for public safety personnel currently dealing with unsafe working conditions. “There is no doubt in my mind that we need a facility like this,” he said. “But I just don’t see how we can fund the additional million, two million a year without a way to pay for it.” He attempted to introduce an amendment that would have required either a public advisory vote or a vote for a bond to directly pay for the purchase, though he acknowledged the earliest this could take place would be February, well after the due diligence period had passed. His motion did not receive a second. “I understand the intention behind Councilmember Cathcart’s amendment, and I think that could warrant some further conversation as we get beyond this due diligence period,” Councilman Paul Dillon said.