The Edmonds City Council is scheduled to continue its discussion — and may take action — on whether the City of Edmonds should submit a letter of interest to the State of Washington for acquiring the Edmonds Conference Center at 4th and Bell.
The State of Washington has declared the conference center, owned by Edmonds Community College, to be surplus and available for purchase. The council must make a written expression of interest by June 1, if it wants to pursue the purchase. The state estimates the fair market value of the 14,375-square-foot property at $2,305,000. The wood-framed, stucco-clad building, built in 1997, has suffered water leaks and related damage that a consultant estimated would cost more than $1 million to repair.
Edmonds Community College has rented out space in the building for classes, meetings and events, such as weddings. The facility’s 2013-14 profit/loss statement showed $276,609 in annual revenue and $329,519 in annual expenses, for a year-end loss of $52,910.
The council also has on its agenda passage of a resolution to dissolve the Emergency Services Coordinating Agency (ESCA), a separate government entity tasked with emergency management coordinating activities for its members. The City of Edmonds — along with other cities in southwest Snohomish County and northwestern King County — has been a partner of ESCA through an interlocal agreement since 1994. ESCA has been governed by its board of directors, with each member city having one board representative.
The ESCA Board at its March 25 meeting passed a resolution recommending to the city councils of ESCA cities that the ESCA be dissolved and the interlocal agreement terminated effective December 31, 2015. Member city councils were requested to take action by June 30, 2015.
According to background information included in the agenda for the City of Lake Forest Park, which voted March 12 to support the March 25 vote to dissolve the agency:
During the summer of 2014, several key occurrences affected ESCA, keeping it from performing at its once impressive
capacity. There were internal investigations conducted on agency staff for violating policy, the director resigned during
the investigations, and other employees were placed on administrative leave. The agency hired an interim director to develop a strategic plan to grow the agency into the future, however in the end, that plan was not enough to keep this coalition of agencies moving in the same direction.
ESCA board members have determined that the Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management “is a very viable alternative” to ESCA, the council agenda notes, and is also able to provide those services at a lower cost than what was charged through ESCA.
The council is also scheduled to:
– hear a proclamation in honor of Public Works Week May 17-May 23.
– hold public hearings on the Draft Capital Facilities Element for 2015 Comprehensive Plan Update and the Draft 2015 Transportation Plan.
– consider renewal of a lease agreement with the Edmonds Trout Unlimited chapter, which runs the Edmonds Fish Hatchery.
– receive a briefing on the Marina Beach Park Master Plan.
– hear an update on development activities/projects.
– amending the City Code regarding delinquency charges for utility accounts, threshold account balances and turn-on and turn-off charges.-
– hold an executive session at the end of the meeting regarding a real estate-related matter.
The meeting will begin at 7 p.m. in the Council Chambers, Public Safety Complex, 250 5th Ave. N. You can see the complete agenda here.
It is not clear what need the purchase of the conference center is intended to fill. We have a limited city budget and have a wide range of important items requiring funding. In fact, the city’s Strategic Action Plan has well over 80 items that were identified and prioritized based on direct Edmonds citizen input. Let’s be sure the high priority items in the SAP are funded before we invest $2m, plus repairs, in the conference center.
Agree with Mr. Teitzel who says it very succinctly. It’s a lovely facility and sad that it hasn’t paid off for the State but our “wants” far outspend our ability to pay for them. The Strategic Action Plan, recently updated, has identified as a very high priority “Recruit businesses that employ technical, professional and managerial skills offering a live/work sustainability environment in Edmonds.” Is this building one that could be converted by a business that could employ 30-50 people in good paying jobs and contribute to the tax base? Hopefully, the City Council will do their due diligence and the State will also entertain offers by the private sector too.
Here’s the link to the Strategic Action Plan Dave referred to.
https://www.edmondswa.gov/images/COE/Government/Departments/Economic_Development/Strategic_plan/Updated_Strategic_Action_Plan_April_2015.pdf
The purchase of the Conference Center would be full of sunk, unrecoverable costs with little or no payback. It would be a new albatross around the city’s neck, but hey…
we can always float a levy to make up for any unforeseen shortfall (wink wink)
I remember when the Chrysanthemum enthusiasts built the “Floral Center” and offered it to the city. The offer was refused.
Has anything changed since then?
What happened to the ethics policy ,at the May 5th meeting it was postponed due to the lateness of the hour and it is not on the agenda this Tuesday or the extended agenda. Makes one wonder
The City should ask the State for more time, again, this Council needs more time to really be informed of all the details, and not be rushed to make a decision. This is an important building in our community and will be needed for years to come.
That building is like my boat, a big hole in the water that I constantly pour money into that I never will see again. More at the council meeting.
This would have been a great opportunity for Council to hold a town hall meeting to gather ideas and comments from the public on what should we do about the opportunity to buy the center. We would have learned about the repair issues. We would have learned about the business opportunity issues and would have learned the current revenue does not cover the current costs. We would have gathered ideas on if we could turn this around. Maybe someone in the public would have some ideas that could have helped.
Likely we would have learned that as a conference center it would not break even and would as some have suggested, turned into a big money hole. If it is a big money hole then we may have learned if anyone would step up and buy it if the city did not. Probably not at the prices discussed so far.
At the town hall meeting would could also have asked. “If not a conference center, then what could we do with it.” At the right price it may be a great deal. Assume for the moment we could buy the land and building for $1m. Three ideas come to mind.
1. Find grant money to turn it into a homeless shelter. Probably some grant money avail for these sorts of things and we could do something good for society.
2. Buy it and resell it to build affordable housing in place of the conference center or just remodel the center to accommodate the new models of compact housing.
3. Buy it, tear it down and use if for the needed parking for Edmonds. We could then take some of the parking south of city hall, finally build public restrooms, and move the parking to the conference center parking. We could do a number of things to add to the parking stall inventory around town, begin to charge all who come to visit to park and make some money all at the same time. If the price is right this could pencil out.
Just 3 ideas but I am sure at a town hall meeting we could come up with several more if we put our creative thinking hat on.
To see the revenue and expenses without any additional details doesn’t give a complete picture to know if it is currently being used most effectively. Maybe revenue could be much higher.
There are also many others ideas for a building like that such as suggested a above. Another idea might be a year round farmers market.
I hope there is a good discussion with accurate information before a decision is made.
Dave Page hit the nail on the head! I have an idea–let the city buy the center with money not available and then move in multi businesses so all the employees can get “Downtown Employee” parking permits. Then, the surrounding streets could join 4th Ave. S and vie for the honor of being Edmonds’ largest “Downtown Employee” parking lot!
Many good ideas Mr. Haug!
In the 1930s many cities built boarding houses to accomodate people of modest means. If there ever was a time in my life (I am 66 now) that our country was in need with so many (I believe 1 out of 5 kids hungry ( many families without affordable housing or housing but no money left for food) that the country could reach out to more people that are suffering, this is it. We ARE a land of plenty and so many so fortunate…..some just need a small lift up right now.
I grew up hearing many wonderful, loving stories of people living in boarding houses together like families and as a matter of fact, there is still one of those old boarding houses left down in the Phinney neighborhood of Seattle and every time I am there I am reminded of all the loving stories I heard in the past about people living and helping each other in boarding houses……
A rich part of our housing community history in this country the idea community….. To me everything is always about how we treat and take care of each other
I agree with Ms. Ryder’s comments regarding the decline in the number of affordable housing units and the increasing number of hungry people.
If the city of Edmonds really cares about the poor, they should explore the option (suggested by Darrol Haug) of re-purposing the building into either a homeless shelter or affordable housing. I would recommend that a van would be available to take the future residents to the Edmonds Food Bank that is open on Tuesdays. My husband and I are now volunteering at the Food Bank and are amazed that there are so many people in our midst who need assistance.
I am including a link to an article published on-line by Crosscut: (see https://crosscut.com/2014/12/affordable-housing-explained/). The article discusses the issue of affordable housing in Seattle.