Sonoma County commits to building $308 million, 5-story headquarters on existing government campus in Santa Rosa

After multiple starts, pauses and iterations, Sonoma County’s beleaguered efforts to build new government offices are moving forward with an emphasis on buying existing office space in the area to supplement a downsized new headquarters building in Santa Rosa.

The hybrid approach represents a less ambitious and less costly vision than the altogether new or remodeled campus that current supervisors and their predecessors have wrangled over for years.

The county now plans to build a single, five-story office for an estimated $308 million on its existing Administration Drive campus, along with a mixed-use residential and commercial development, while also purchasing office space elsewhere.

The county is eyeing two properties for purchase — one on Airport Boulevard that the county recently leased and another just down the road on Brickway Boulevard. Should it purchase both properties, the county would shift a significant portion of its footprint to the airport area between Santa Rosa and Windsor.

“We can pick up a lot of good real estate cheaper than we can build,” said Director of Public Infrastructure Johannes Hoevertsz, who is spearheading the project.

The new government complex project has inched along at a painstaking pace as county leaders grappled with how to address deteriorating buildings on the county campus in Santa Rosa.

A growing maintenance backlog, much of it tied to the sprawling 1950s-era campus north of Steele Lane, prompted supervisors to consider building a new government headquarters in downtown Santa Rosa, but the board ultimately abandoned the plan in 2022 over concerns about the cost.

Seismic safety concerns and significant maintenance issues at the campus buildings, including leaking roofs and sewage problems, caused the county to lease office space at 400 Aviation Boulevard, opened in 2016 as new headquarters for American AgCredit. That lease, which includes an option to purchase within the first five years, marked the county’s pivot toward securing existing commercial office space rather than building it.

Purchasing 400 Aviation Boulevard could cost an estimated $61.5 million, including moving and furnishing costs and the cost of the lease prior to purchase, according to a county staff report.

The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday endorsed the proposal to build the downsized building on the Administration Drive campus and directed Hoevertsz to pursue office space for sale.

“If we do a hybrid approach that way, we can do it affordably and we cannot occur any crippling long term debt that keep us from providing the services that we need to provide,” Board Chair David Rabbitt said.

The county has a $71.3 million balance in its County Center Modernization fund, which is intended for the project. That balance is expected to reach $86 million by the end of the 2024-25 fiscal year, according to a county staff report.

Between that fund balance and the county’s borrowing capacity, the county can support a total project cost of approximately $386 million, according to the report.

The building to be constructed on the Administration Drive campus would hold 800 to 1,000 employees. It is a pared down version of a concept the board reviewed in January 2023, which outlined a building that would hold 1,700 employees and cost an estimated $682 million.

Altogether, the county workforce tops roughly 4,400 including large agencies such as the Sheriff’s Office and Health Services that have their own headquarters.

The board also authorized other parts of the plan, which include a mixed-use development with up to 1,000 residential units on 9.3 acres of the county property bordering Mendocino Avenue, and the construction of a new emergency coordination center where county staff and leaders can operate during disasters like a wildfire or earthquake.

The emergency hub so far is unfunded and the mixed-use development will likely require a private developer, Hoevertsz said. Supervisors on Tuesday suggested the housing project be designed with potential funds from the November ballot’s Bay Area housing tax measure mind.

The next step will be to submit the headquarters project, including the mixed-use development, for environmental review under state regulations. That process could take 18 to 24 months, Hoevertsz said, adding that design work on the new county building could be carried out simultaneously in a similar time frame.

“We are really excited to be able to move this process forward,” Hoevertsz said. “The board’s been looking at the government center since 2009.”

You can reach Staff Writer Emma Murphy at 707-521-5228 or emma.murphy@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MurphReports.