For what it’s worth, Bainbridge city officials won’t say what they’ve been told about the value of the Harrison Bainbridge Urgent Care building by a series of professional property appraisers.
Bainbridge wants to buy the medical clinic building at 8804 Madison Ave. North and retrofit the structure as a new public safety facility, and a purchase-and-sale agreement is expected to come before the city council within the coming week.
The city signed a “letter of intent” with Harrison Medical Center for the building and the 3.3-acre property on Jan. 29. The city will pay $8.975 million in cash for the property upon closing of the deal.
Three appraisals have been done on the property, two by the city and one by Harrison since 2018, according to documents obtained by the Review through a public records request.
The city hired Colliers International for an appraisal in June 2018 to determine the market value of the property, and paid $6,000 for the work.
A second firm, Kidder Matthews, conducted an appraisal in December 2018 for the property, and an invoice shows the city paid $3,000 for the report.
Details on the appraisal done by Harrison were not immediately available.
Built in 2014, the Harrison Bainbridge Urgent Care building is 17,548 square feet in size and has a current market value of $2.6 million, according to the Kitsap County Assessor’s Office. The site was purchased by CHI in August 2013 for $1.75 million.
Cost of the property and its retrofitting has been a sticking point for the council since the city put the building on its short list of potential sites for a new public safety building in late 2017.
At its last meeting in January, the council took the next step toward buying the building on a split 4-3 vote, with some in the majority continuing to question the cost.
Councilman Matthew Tirman later asked his fellow council members to approve the public release of the appraisals for the property, but failed to find support from his fellow council members for the disclosure.
They have since remained secret.
The Review recently requested the appraisals from the city, but officials, citing state law, said the documents were exempt from public disclosure.
Real estate appraisals are specifically exempt from release under the states open public records law, given that public knowledge of a potential purchase could increase the price of the property.
State law also says that such records can be released to the public if the prospective property is purchased, sold or leased, or the project is abandoned.
City officials have said Bainbridge will publicly release the appraisals if a purchase-and-sale agreement is signed for the property with Harrison, or the project is abandoned.
That end may come soon.
The city council is expected to review a purchase-and-sale agreement at its meeting on Tuesday, March 12.
