Benton County spends $13.6 million to replace long-cramped Kennewick offices

Benton County’s complex in west Kennewick is expanding its footprint with the construction of a new administration office building.

County commissioners on Tuesday awarded a $13.6 million contract to Banlin Construction of Kennewick.

The project, which has been in the works for 1 1/2 years, will kick off with a groundbreaking on Feb. 14. Construction is expected to last 15 to 18 months.

While the new building will be part of the Benton County Justice Center and share the same address — 7122 W. Okanogan Place — it will be on its own lot to the north near Belfair Street and Rio Grande Avenue.

The Justice Center already houses District Court, Superior Court, the Benton County jail and corrections department and multiple county offices, including clerk, prosecutor and sheriff.

It also is the site of a maintenance facility building and the Benton Franklin Health District.

County staff, including commissioners, administrators and human resources, have long been cramped in an upstairs corner of the main Justice Center building.

The new administration building provides “a one-stop shop for the assessor, auditor, treasurer, human resources and commissioners ... eliminating the public’s need to commute between multiple office locations to complete a task,” Commissioner Shon Small previously said.

It will be 46,000 square feet, though about 7,400 square feet of office space is expected to remain empty for future improvements, according to a State Environmental Policy Act report.

The nearly 23-acre lot also will include more parking for those needing to do county business.

Commissioners were told Tuesday that the current parking lot at the Justice Center will be affected for the first three months during the start of construction.

Kennewick Fire Department’s station 3 is to the west of the property at the corner of Quinault Avenue and Belfair.

The county seat will remain in Prosser, where commissioners gather for their weekly meetings. But the hub of county business has been in Kennewick for decades in several different buildings.

In November, the county also opened a new Public Services Building at 102206 E. Wiser Parkway.

The 7,500-square-foot facility cost $1.7 million and houses branches of the county’s planning, building and public works departments. Banlin Construction also served as the contractor on that project.

Small has said combining departments into one building will “streamline county processes and increase efficiency to better serve the community.”

This story was originally published January 29, 2020 at 5:00 AM.