SEQUIM — The city police station will nearly double in size and move into the former Danny’s restaurant next year.

The City Council voted unanimously Monday night to spend up to $300,000 remodeling the city’s Police Department’s space in the J.C. Penney shopping center, after Police Chief and Interim City Manager Robert Spinks pleaded for the expansion funding.

The former restaurant’s fixtures will be removed to make room for Sequim’s 19 police officers and a new, secure lobby.

The McNish family, which owns the shopping center, will return the former Danny’s space to its “original shell condition,” said Steve Smith, the family’s representative.

Spinks joked that he might have been able to use some of the kitchen equipment.

“If we could get a Krispy Kreme franchise, we’d be doing great,” he said.

No new building

The Police Department, long tucked into the southeast corner of the Penney plaza at 609 W. Washington St., was supposed to get a whole new $4 million building of its own, according to Spinks’ plans earlier this year.

With tight budget times ahead, the chief instead argued for staying put, in suites 13 and 16 of the center.

That combined space, at 6,280 square feet, is as cramped as ever, Spinks has said.

Last month,a McNish made him an offer he was loath to refuse: suites 13, 16 and 17 — since Danny’s closed last summer — for $93,041 per year.

Spinks considered that decent, since the yearly rent for suites 13 and 16 is $81,156, and is likely to increase considerably in the coming months.

The catch in the three-suites deal: The Police Department must sign a five-year lease for all 11,560 square feet.

The landlord wants a decision by Dec. 1, Spinks told the council.

He called the five-year lease rate, about 50 cents a square foot, the cheapest in Sequim.

After the council’s unanimous vote, Spinks thanked the members, saying the expansion will give his officers and staff a safer environment.

He plans to remodel the police station lobby to make it secure, redesign the holding cell, add interview and victim holding areas, training and locker rooms and more space for the department’s K-9 officer, Chase.

Frank Needham, the city’s capital projects manager, said an architect from Arai Jackson Ellison Murakami of Seattle will visit the Police Department next week, to “do the walk-through so he can start the process,” of spending and remodeling.

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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.