July 23, 2025

City of Mercer Island plans new $103M municipal building

Renderings by Northwest Studio [enlarge]

The old City Hall will be demolished. This view looks south.

Mercer Island City Hall closed two years ago because of asbestos found in the 1957 building, unsurprising given its vintage. That low-slung and now vacant building sits on the north end of the island, at 9611 S.E. 36th St., near the eastbound Interstate 90 onramp. Demolition is its certain fate, and the city has also noted its fatal “structural and seismic deficiencies.”

Meanwhile, many city employees have been operating in temporary digs — or from home — since 2023. The police are now in four portable trailers; other municipal staff are using the nearby city Community Center, Maintenance Building and Luther Burbank Administrative Building.

Beginning in March of last year, planning has been underway for a new 70,000-square-foot Public Safety and Maintenance Facility (the PSM) to rise a little south of the current City Hall footprint (following its demo), also replacing some the 45-year-old Public Works Building and various sheds.

That proposal, under architect Northwest Studio, is fairly well advanced. The city is now preparing an over $103 million November bond issue to underwrite the new building. The hope is to break ground in mid-2027, with about 24 months to completion. The City Council approved the ballot measure last week.

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The parking lot, left, faces 36th.

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The north wing will house the Police Department, Emergency Operations, Public Works, IT and GIS Departments and Customer Service Center.

The PSM plan isn't yet in the separate city permit process, which will likely begin next year. There's no sign yet of a demo permit application, for a future contract worth about $900,000, including the asbestos abatement.

For the new two-story PSM structure, under a large shared roof, with covered parking between the two, there will be a larger north public safety wing and a smaller south maintenance wing. The north wing will house the Police Department, Emergency Operations, Public Works, IT and GIS Departments and Customer Service Center. (For staff and visitors, a newer, larger surface parking lot will front on 36th.)

The south wing is for all the city's back-of-house stuff: trucks, storage, snowplows, repairs, maintenance, etc., to which the public needs no access.

The PSM project hasn't yet gone out to bid for a contractor. The team also includes Berger Partnership, landscape architect; Quantum Engineering, structural; JMJ Engineering, civil; PAE Engineering, MEP.

The city says that some rezoning will be necessary. The future general contracting bid may also include construction management services. Out of the overall budget, the city's 1% for art program will allocate about $739,633 for new commissioned artworks.

The doomed old City Hall has about 35,832 square feet; it was extensively remodeled in 1988. The original architect couldn't be verified before deadline. The municipal campus now spans about 13 acres.

Separately, next door to the east of the doomed structure, the city is the process of acquiring by condemnation a 1990s-era office building at 9655 36th. The price tag will be about $9 million. That's now home to Yellow Wood Academy, which is relocating to Cascade Yard, in the Eastgate area of Bellevue. The City Council approved that pending deal earlier this month.

That two-story, 22,000-square-foot building will then house city departments including Community Planning and Development, Public Works Capital Projects and Engineering, and Youth and Family Services. The plan is to later integrate that into the new PSM construction via new landscaping, pedestrian improvements, etc.