City leaders on Monday voted unanimously to purchase the old Public Health building on Auburn Avenue North from King County.

Now the purchase and sale agreement returns to the King County Council for final action.

The contract is for $350,000, with an additional $75,000 budgeted for studies and repairs. The building is about 8,000 square feet and has 20 parking spaces.

“The timing that we have received from King County’s Real Estate

Department is that we should be getting King County Council approval in the next 90 days, and should close within 30 days after that,” said Economic Development Director Doug Lein.

Lein said that after the City began negotiations to acquire the building, its parks, arts and recreation department put a grant application into King County’s 4Culture for $250,000 to effect interior remodeling and additional upgrading.

Should the county say yes to the deal, the arts division of the Auburn Parks, Arts and Recreation Department expects to occupy most of the building.

“So, it’s not only an opportunity to purchase but to have a nice outside cash flow to make the improvements we want. We are going to run some art space out of there,” Director of Administration Dana Hinman recently told the Auburn Reporter.

The greatest need the old building presents is roof repair and or replacement, but until the City owns the building lock, stock and barrel, it won’t be allowed to put anybody up on the roof to get the complete picture. But most likely the building will require repairs or some sort of replacement to the pitched part of the roof out front, which covers perhaps 20 percent of the entire roof area. Windows will need a bit of work, but the original floor can be saved.

Lein said the building has been vacant for close to seven years, but King County has kept the heat, the lights, and the air conditioning in working condition throughout that span.

“There’s been no mold found, and it’s really in amazing shape,” Lein said. “It’s pretty much just what they did to it over the years with tenant improvements through the ’80s and ’70s.”

“Do we know how much of this area is going to be devoted to the arts center?” asked Councilman Bob Baggett.

“Not really,” Lein responded. “I’m sure a percentage of it will be … probably 50 percent, I would guess, but there have been a number of plans and requests for space come in from different parts of the city, so it’s all under study and review.”

The building, which is on the national and state historical registries, started out in 1937 as the Auburn Post Office. King County acquired it in 1963 when the new post office was built on 3rd Street.

In 2009, King County put the Carnegie building up for sale on the open market.

At the time, the City, in its determination to lease the building, consistently reminded county leaders why Andrew Carnegie had built and donated it in the first place, and what he intended it to stay in perpetuity – a general community benefit.

King County’s asking price at the time was a bit more than what the City was offering to lease it for – the same one buck for which King County had acquired it.

“As most of you know, it has been the desire of the City Council and the City to own that building for several years, but the price was prohibitive,” said Mayor Nancy Backus. “It started out three or four years ago at $900,000, and that was just not palatable to any of us who were on the council at that time. And over the course of the last four years, I won’t say that we wore them down, but we wore them down, and King County has been very gracious as of late to allow us this purchase price of $350,000.”