STANWOOD – The idea was thrifty but the reality ended up costing a bit too much.
That’s the reason cited by Stanwood officials as they pull away from a proposal to join Sno-Isle Libraries in remodeling the Thrifty Foods grocery store downtown into a civic campus with a new library, city hall and police station.
And even though both sides would still like to work together, the joint campus idea will get tougher to pull off, because the city is no longer willing to wait until voters pass a new library bond.
Stanwood could afford to move forward with a new city hall and police station if it succeeds in selling some properties, including the existing City Hall and an old fire station.
Architects estimated renovating the 32,000-square-foot Thrifty building would have cost the library $6 million and the city $5 million, said Stephanie Hansen, the city’s community development director.
“Ultimately, we’re hoping not to hit that $5 million mark,” Hansen said.
For that kind of money, the architects told the city it could just as easily build a new City Hall and police station, Hansen said.
Library and city officials looked at renovating the grocery store after voters in the Stanwood area and Camano Island in 2004 rejected a $9 million bond issue for a new 20,000-square-foot library on a vacant lot in town, said Mary Kelly, a Sno-Isle Libraries spokeswoman.
That bond would not have covered the city’s part of the project, but the two sides were hoping a joint campus would save them both money.
After voters shot the bond down, city and library officials shifted their focus to a renovation instead of building anew.
“We were looking for ways to reduce the cost of the bond,” Kelly said. “We had certainly not made any commitment to the Thrifty Food site. We were just looking to see if that was a possibility for us.”
Space wasn’t a problem, but the building would have needed significant and costly rebuilding to meet modern codes, Hansen said. The original southern part of the building was constructed in 1970, while the grocery store was built in 1982, she said.
“There were many upgrades related to seismic improvements” to hold up against big earthquakes, Hansen said.
The grocery store’s wide-open layout also would have required considerable construction inside to meet the city’s needs, she said.
“All those things start to add up,” Hansen said.
Two City Council members and some city planning commissioners have been meeting regularly with Hansen and library officials about the joint campus idea. The city officials recently notified the library that the Thrifty building won’t work, Kelly said.
Now they’re leaning toward moving forward with or without the library, Hansen said.
Mayor-elect Dianne White, a city councilwoman who is not on that committee, agreed the city should not wait. Staff needs have outgrown the existing City Hall, which was built in 1939, and the police station is in an old bank, she said.
Reporter Scott Morris: 425-339-3292 or smorris@heraldnet.com.
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