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Big move nears for Council 2 members
SOME 800 Snohomish County employees — many of them members of Council 2 — soon will occupy new offices in downtown Everett.
Now working in 18 leased offices scattered throughout the downtown area, they are scheduled early next year to start moving into a 230,000-square-foot office building that will be the new Snohomish County government offices.
The new building, which will include a public plaza, an outdoor café and three floors designated for customer service, is part of a $167 million new administrative campus.
The campus also will include a 1,200-car underground parking garage, a public plaza and a new jail.
Several Locals will be involved in the move, including 109, 109-E, 1811-C and 1811-CA.
Mike Huston, President of Local 109-E and union representative to the Campus Redevelopment Initiative, says most of the Council 2 members will be moving in during 2005.
“Almost every County employee will be in either the new Administration East building or the renovated Administration West building, which is also on the site,” Huston says.
Although the Administration East building will be new, the space for each employee will be smaller, Huston adds. The building is being constructed in terms of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, principles, he adds. LEED is a point-based rating system. The points are earned for building attributes considered environmentally beneficial.
The Campus Redevelopment Initiative is one of the largest development projects in the history of Everett. By bringing some 1,000 workers into one place, it is expected to revitalize downtown businesses. The makeover also will dramatically change downtown Everett’s image, attracting more residents and more activities in addition to more businesses.
The new 243,000-square-foot jail will add an additional 640 inmate beds to bring to 1,040 the total number of beds in Snohomish County.
The redevelopment initiative began early in 2000 when the Boeing Co. offered its Bomarc property at Paine Field to the county as a place to consolidate county services. But business and civic leaders opposed the idea, saying the move would kill downtown Everett.
So instead the Snohomish County Council in 2000 decided to develop a campus to meet their space needs.
Construction was started in 2003.
Once the administrative building is complete, county employees will gradually move from downtown leased space to the new county campus.
The new county buildings are in addition to a new transit center and a combination special events arena and convention center that have been built in Everett. These projects, which together with the Snohomish County’s new campus are being developed at a cost of $335 million and will transform the face of downtown.
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