East Wenatchee Police Set For New Headquarters

The East Wenatchee Police Department could move into its new headquarters on the south part of town as early as next month. 

The city bought the offices at 50 Simon St. in 2021 for about $4.2 million from a private owner, who had been leasing out the space. 

The building was previous occupied by Aging and Adult Care of Central Washington and several state agencies. 

East Wenatchee Police Chief Rick Johnson says $1 million in renovations to the interior of the building are now finishing up. 

"Some walls were removed, some offices were added," said Johnson. "We built an evidence room that didn't exist before. And a bunch of technology went into the building." 

Johnson said he hoped to have the police department moved in by mid-March, with an open house for public visits taking place in April and May. 

The building has 14,600 square feet. 

The department will occupy the 8,000 square feet on floor one of the two-story building, while the upper floor's 6,600 square feet will house local government and law enforcement offices. 

The city allocated construction costs last month of $522,680.74 in a contract with Apollo Inc. 

Architectural costs totaled $198,000. Johnson said furniture costs came to roughly $70,000, with evidence lockers coming in at $47,000. 

A traffic light at the nearby intersection of Rock Island Road and 3rd Street Southeast is being installed. It was approved for grant funding from the Transportation Improvement Board, only after the city announced the police department would be moving to the 50 Simon Street location.  

Johnson said the city's choice to move into the existing building was cost effective after a study was conducted on the cost of constructing a new facility. 

"In 2020, the estimated cost to build a structure like that was $12 million," Johnson said. "We think we were really fiscally responsible as a city to be getting into this and working for just over $5 million ($4.2 million purchase cost for the building and $1 million for renovations)."