Construction starts on $12.5 million project at defunct Tri-Cities Raceway

By the end of the year the West Richland Police Department will be moving from its 45-year-old home to a new $12.5 million building.

Dirt already is being moved ahead of the official groundbreaking being held virtually at 2 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 4. The event will be streamed on the West Richland police’s Facebook page.

From start to finish, the entire project is moving quickly, said West Richland Police Chief Ben Majetich.

The department will move out of its aging 3,000-square-foot building at 3805 W. Van Giesen St. next to the library to its new 20,500-square-foot building in December.

Majetich credits the swiftness of the project on a few things including that the $12.5 million bond passed in spring 2019, the first time the bond went to a vote.

“We recognized that years ago, with the our size of agency we couldn’t accomplish what we needed (in the current space),” Majetich said. “We built relationships with citizens, community groups and business groups. We are much appreciated for the work we do in West Richland.”

Majetich believes that the groundwork the department started laying years ago helped the public appreciate and see the need for the new space.

“We are super excited — all the citizens are, too. Really, truly it will be a community building,” he said.

Major makeover

The headquarters will sit on five acres of the 93-acre defunct Tri-Cities Raceway that the city of West Richland bought from the Port of Kennewick in 2019.

Majetich points out that the facility takes into account the expected growth in the area for the next 20 to 30 years.

In addition to the police department, there will be space for two Washington state Department of Corrections officers. And the police agency will have its own restroom facilities for tasks such as drug tests.

The city also is adding a 2,700-square-foot animal kennel area for police dogs and lost dogs.

The building also will have a community room for the public to help with the lack of meeting space in town and also create a sense of community.

It will be open to organizations, such as Boy Scouts, school groups and community groups, as well as act as a space for police training or meetings with citizens.

“Our interaction with the public is usually with a negative connotation (such as a theft or wreck) — it’s never positive,” Majetich said. “This way it really does have people interacting with one another. It is the biggest room in the building.”

The bond also paid for new furnishings, including desks, chairs, monitors, safety equipment and generators.

He credited the quick start of the project to the design process the city used.

The contractor Chervenell Construction and designer Design West Architects were hired simultaneously and worked cohesively over the past year to create an exact blueprint. Subcontractors have been hired and each step of the process has been laid out in a timeline to streamline the project.

“It is going to be a gorgeous building,” Majetich said. “I couldn’t be more happy about the progress we’ve made.”

This story was originally published February 1, 2021 at 5:00 AM.