SEQUIM — City staffers have moved into newly remodeled shopping center space next to the Sequim Police Department to relieve tight work conditions at City Hall a few blocks away.

The new space in the Sequim Village Shopping Center, part of the commercial development where J.C. Penney Co. is located at 609 W. Washington St., is now occupied by City Attorney Craig Ritchie, the Human Resources Department and information technology staff.

The remodeling came as the city signed a new five-year lease with the McNish Family Trust LLC until Dec. 31, 2015.

The lease is $4,501.32 a month, or the equivalent of 85 cents a square foot. This is an increase of $1.102.89 a month for the newly improved space.

The project improved about 3,000 square feet of 5,289 square feet in the unit and added five new offices and nine work spaces.

The Police Department will use some of the space for storage and workout equipment.

At City Hall at 152 W.Cedar St., City Manager Steve Burkett said, some offices will be upgraded.

More office space

This will add more office space, employee privacy and a conference room at City Hall, he said.

The new space at the shopping center gives the city attorney a private office, which Burkett said was required for legal discussions. The same goes for Human Resources, he said.

Burkett said the new lease also gives the city breathing space to build a new City Hall in the next four or five years.

“Our goal is to acquire the land for City Hall this year and develop a financial plan for a City Hall,” he said.

A plan to double and improve the same shopping center space for the Sequim Police Department was scuttled after Burkett said he found that it would cost the city more than double the original estimate and was no longer necessary.

Burkett’s action was backed by the City Council, which acted to settle with the contractor, Hannah Construction of Port Angeles, for $34,100 for planning work to remodel the additional space for a police briefing room, office space, an armory and a physical fitness area.

The city’s action came after the city leased the space in 2008, never using it at a cost of about $76,000 in $3,800-a-month rent to the building owner.

Since 1995, the Police Department has leased former movie theater space that it shares with Clallam County sheriff’s deputies.

The city leases a total of 11,560 square feet in the shopping center. About 1,000 square feet of separate space at the shopping center is used by police detectives.

Burkett said the city is locked into a five-year lease so it must still wisely use the space.

The city is now paying $6,800 a month on the North Fifth Avenue space for the Public Works and Planning departments and is looking to lower its lease costs, the city manager said.

Former Police Chief Bob Spinks, who acted as city manager before Burkett started in January 2010, negotiated the lease in fall 2008 for the additional police space.

Project management

Mayor Ken Hays said how the project was managed was part of the reason Burkett asked Spinks and former city Capital Projects Manager Frank Needham to leave.

The contract for the police expansion project was originally awarded in April after some legal issue with a previous bidding process that tossed it out, delaying action.

When he first took the helm at City Hall, Burkett said cost estimates showed the project would today cost $663,000 rather than the $300,000 originally estimated to perform the improvements.

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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.