Commissioners approve purchase of Mottman buildings, lease and improvements for 3000 Pacific Ave. building 

The Thurston Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) passed resolutions yesterday that will add two new facilities which will expand office and operations capacity for several departments.

The new facilities include the purchase of three buildings in the Mottman industrial park in Tumwater and the lease of the 3000 Pacific Ave building in Olympia.The County Auditor’s Elections Division already occupies approximately three-fifths of one of the Mottman buildings.

During the regular BOCC meeting Thurston County Community Planning Manager, Jennifer Davis presented a resolution to amend Appendix G of the 2021-2026 Capital Improvement Program (CIP)

Davis requested the commissioners approve a $6,000,000 allocation to purchase three buildings on three separate parcels of land at the same campus. The site locations are 2905 29th Ave. SW, 2915 29th Ave. SW, and 2918 Ferguson St. SW, Tumwater.  Under the proposed amendment, the county plans to continue to use part of the site as the new Elections division of the Auditor Office, Facilities, and the Records Center.

The three buildings stand at the northwest corner of the intersection of the two streets and are about .6 miles north of Thurston County Family & Juvenile Court buildings.   Currently the buildings are leased to approximately eight tenants. Two tenants told The JOLT today that county officials informed them that they would be allowed to continue to lease their spaces until the end of their leases. 

The planning manager justified that the purchase is necessary since the Auditor’s office needed more space to manage elections. Davis believed that a new structure would provide a secure space for the Auditor to conduct its operations.

In addition, Davis also proposed a $7,000,000 amendment for the lease and improvements of the 3000 Pacific Avenue building in Olympia.

The improvements at the 3000 Pacific building would cater to the following offices: Auditor, Community Planning and Economic Development, Board of County Commissioners, Information Technology, Board of Equalization, Human Resources, Geodata, Central Services Administration and Treasurer.

Davis explained that because of the age of the current Building 2 and Building 3 of the existing county campus, there are much-needed improvements on the facility. These improvements are necessary since they already affect court operations.

The motion was approved in a 2-1 vote with Commissioner Gary Edwards opposing.