PORT TOWNSEND – Jefferson County’s public health care district will not buy the office building across from Jefferson Healthcare hospital on Sheridan Street.
Until recently, the Jefferson County Public Health Care District No. 2 commissioners were set to purchase the two-story building for about $5 million.
They planned to use it to house offices that are now in a building on the hospital campus, which would have been converted into a clinic.
But, commissioners learned that the hospital building, which was built in 1965, would have needed extensive upgrades to be compliant with building codes for a clinic.
“At the last minute, we were hit with a surprise,” said Jill Buhler, hospital commissioner chairwoman.
“We regrettably had to back out of the deal.”
In a unanimous decision last week, the commissioners voted to abandon plans to purchase the office building that now houses the state Department of Social and Health Services and the Olympic Area Agency on Aging on the upper floor.
The commissioners didn’t even learn approximately how much the upgrades to the building would cost to bring it up to code.
“We just didn’t want to spend any more of the hospital district’s money pursuing it any more,” Buhler said.
Even before the news, the planned purchase had caused contention among the five hospital commissioners.
Commissioner Tony DeLeo adamantly opposed the purchase of the building, saying that if the hospital district needed clinic space, which it does, then it shouldn’t purchase a building that couldn’t be used as a clinic because of low ceilings and other factors.
But, the other four commissioners – in a May vote – decided to send a letter of intent to Jim and Noreen McCarron, owners of the building, saying they were interested in buying it.
Jim McCarron said that, even before he had begun construction of the building in 2004, he had been negotiating with the hospital.
He held off on renting or selling the building to others.
“I turned down several tenants – and excellent tenants – because I said I’m negotiating with the hospital,” McCarron said.
