Thurston County took the first step toward enhancing its sheriff’s office services with the potential purchase of a building at 1111 Israel Road SW in Tumwater, valued at $14,250,000. The Board of County Commissioners approved a purchase and sale agreement with 1111 Israel Road LLC to authorize a $500,000 deposit and initiate a 105-day inspection period.
The building will enable the sheriff’s office to consolidate all operational units into one centralized location, fostering improved efficiency, collaboration and community service, according to a county news release.
The recently approved public safety tax includes funding for a new facility for the sheriff’s office, Capital Projects Planning Manager Rick Thomas said. Thurston County Central Services began working with the sheriff’s office in early 2024 to find an existing building in good condition, and the county’s real estate broker provided a list of 10 buildings in the Lacey, Olympia and Tumwater areas.
Each building was evaluated based upon criteria such as accessibility to major arterials, total building square footage to accommodate current as well as anticipated 20-year needs, physical condition of the building, amount of renovation required and projected purchase price. Thomas said the building at 1111 Israel Road SW best met the criteria.
“The 1111 Israel Road building appears to have been very well maintained since its construction about 15 years ago,” he said.
Negotiations commenced in April of 2024 and concluded in August with an agreed purchase price of just over $250 per square foot for the 56,000-square foot, four-star building, Thomas said. The property also includes over 150 parking spaces.
The estimated total project cost is approximately $21 million, with renovation and furnishing costs anticipated to be around $4.75 million. In the near future, the facility will have a vehicle impound facility and a potential shooting range, which would cost a combined $2 million.
Thurston County Sheriff Derek Sanders spoke to the board during the meeting about how the new, centralized location would help the sheriff’s office run more efficiently.
“This was a lot of collaboration about exactly what the sheriff’s office needs are that have not been met for decades at this point,” Sanders said. “Ever since I’ve worked here, which is nearly a decade now, the sheriff’s office has run split operations. I have one bureau in the jail, I have one bureau at the courthouse, which is administrators and detectives, and then I have one bureau out at the field operations in Tumwater, which is all of our patrol and narcotics task force. That alone is challenging. On top of that, we have no space for additional employees.”
The sheriff said it is not irregular for deputies to stand waiting to log evidence or to log onto computers. He added that the new building would help house the additional employees that the office is looking to hire, as he said it is anticipating filling all nine of its new public safety tax deputy positions this year and 18 such roles in 2025.
“What I was looking for was to consolidate us into one building that the county could then own. We were no longer paying rent because, as of right now, the field operations bureau pays rent every year to the port, so we’re not getting any return of investment on that,” Sanders said. “We’ve seen some new police departments and some of the ranges probably creeping up on nearly $100 million at this point, and for us to get into a building that works for us for less than $20 million was a huge deal on our part.”
Sanders said the new building would help with “the smallest things in the world” that make a difference, including detectives and patrol deputies passing by each other every day to exchange information. It would also provide a location for children if they are taken from a scene.
Thurston County ranks 38th among the 39 counties in the state for the number of deputies per population. Sanders said this facility would help the office continue to improve in every facet.
“I appreciate everyone’s collaboration on this and recognizing there’s been a lot of needs for the sheriff’s office, but this is just one more step to get us out of second to last place in the state, which is pretty close to being second to last place in the country at this point,” he said.
In a news release, Tye Menser, chair of the Board of County Commissioners, thanked the community’s support of the public safety tax in making the potential purchase move forward.
“This potential acquisition represents a significant investment in our community’s safety and well-being,” Menser said.
Vice Chair Wayne Fournier added in the release that the county will benefit from owning the sheriff’s office building.
“Owning the building allows the county to plan for the future needs of the sheriff’s office and make necessary improvements without the constraints of a lease agreement,” he said. “This purchase is a large step in addressing the county’s growing facility needs.”
The 105-day inspection period will allow the county to evaluate the property and research whether it meets the sheriff’s office and community’s needs. If the purchase moves forward, the $500,000 deposit will be applied to the total purchase price. If the county chooses not to proceed, the deposit will be fully refunded.
