Benton County to spend $5 million to save millions more on 2nd recovery center

Benton County has decided to spend $4.8 million to buy a second building they plan to use for the future regional mental health facility, rather than lease the property.

Buying the it now will save taxpayers millions of dollars in the long run, say officials, and make it easier for the Benton Franklin Behavioral Health Advisory Committee to manage grants for the project.

That’s because the original lease for the building at 10 E. Bruneau Ave. included an option to buy it, which the county had planned to do after five years.

They also were offered an initial discount of more than $200,000 by the owner for the first year the county had already paid, and managed to negotiate even more. That meant a total savings of $331,000 over the proposed sale price of $5.1 million.

Had they continued to lease the building over the course of its original 25-year term, it would have cost the county at least $6.9 million. That’s a savings of at least $2.1 million.

In addition to the savings, there are other key reasons they should buy it now, Deputy County Administrator Matt Rasmussen told the Benton County commissioners at their recent meeting.

With construction set to begin as early as next August at this facility and at the old Kennewick General Hospital building, the county will have more control over the projects.

“This frees us up to have a lot more flexibility with the structure, and helps the grant process because the state doesn’t like leases,” Rasmussen explained.

The former KGH facility will also house mental health and addiction services.

Some grants may give preference to structures that are owned because there may be more flexibility for changes. And it allows them to build to specifications without worrying if the property owner will approve and eliminates concerns over whether a lease will be renewed.

Owning the building also will streamline grant reporting requirements.

Typically a leased property for a project like this would require the property owner to also be involved in the grant reporting process, so by purchasing the property, only the committee that oversees the facility will be involved in the reporting.

When using grant funding, entities are required to report back on various things throughout the term of the grant, which is often over several years.

“They frown upon leases unless they are very long term, and then there’s a lot of involvement with the property owner,” Rasmussen said.

“Us being the owner, the (state) is very favorable to that and very supportive of us moving down this route. It’s a good thing for everybody, and it’s going to save us some money long-term and make sure we have a long-term viable facility there,” he said.

What will go there?

The county initially entered into the lease for the building because the sale contract for the KGH building stipulated it could only house certain types of treatment.

The old KGH hospital will be used for inpatient residential substance use treatment, while the Bruneau Avenue facility will be used for crisis stabilization, secure withdrawal and 23-hour observation.

The combined cost of the two buildings still comes in at significantly less than the estimated $10 million the county would have had to spend if they built a new facility. However, it is unclear how much they’ll need to spend on construction to get the facilities ready for use.

Benton County won’t be footing the bill by themselves though. Funding from grants, the state and cities and counties across the region will help pay for and operate the facilities.

The facilities will use a design-build process, which means once designs reach a certain threshold they can begin building the facilities. Rasmussen previously told the Herald that they expect to hit that point around August.

The committee also is looking at the feasibility of a sobering center, which could open by the end of the year, but a location and provider hasn’t been decided for that yet.

The committee will include local elected officials and county employees, mental health and addiction professionals, first responders and citizens.

The committee is hitting new milestones at a rapid clip, with the most recent developments including added funding from Opioid lawsuits and a discussion on a final name for the facilities expected to take place in July.

The original name Two Rivers Behavioral Health Center, was too similar to an existing mental health business, Three Rivers Therapy. That Kennewick business has been around since 2015.

The frontrunner for the updated name is Columbia River Regional Recovery Center, of C3RC.

About the building

The recently purchased building is on the property of what is known as the old Welch’s Juice plant in downtown Kennewick.

The one Bruneau Avenue address currently encompasses the entire campus of the former plant, which was sold by J. Lieb Foods to Columbia River Warehouse LLC. for $4.5 million in 2019.

Since 2019, the new property owner, Corey Bitton, has been working on improvements across the 7.5-acre site.

The plant includes five buildings, totaling 210,000 square feet of warehouse and manufacturing space.

The Public Market at Columbia River Warehouse opened in the bottom floor of the largest building last summer, and Ice Harbor Brewery’s new flagship restaurant opened on the main floor of that same building last week.

That building was the main manufacturing facility, with Ice Harbor now taking advantage of a huge former freezer space for brewing operations.

The mental health facility is across the property, and already has been separated off from the market area.

The county is buying what is currently known as Lot C, which is 46,700 square feet total with 22,000 square feet of facility space in two interconnected buildings. It is at the north east edge of the property.

There is another building that shares a wall to the south and a warehouse space to the west, which will create a buffer between the facility and the public shopping and dining area. It is the building directly behind the car wash on Washington Street.

Although no plans have been announced, the entrance to the facility could be accessible by a service road that runs east to west along the north side of the facility.