Marin County officials found that sometimes old is better than new when deciding how to set up an emergency operations center.
Instead of spending more than $100 million to build a new facility from the ground up, the county hired Sares Regis Group of Northern California to do a $50 million renovation of 1600 Los Gamos, a 315,000-square-foot building on the former Fireman’s Fund Insurance campus in San Rafael.
The project, now done, will house the Marin County Emergency Operations Facility in about 118,000 square feet along with another 45,000 square feet for other county workers. The remaining 152,000 square feet will be leased to outside tenants.
“We are very excited to complete this vital community emergency facility in an economical and sustainable manner,” said Jeff Birdwell, president of Sares Regis’ commercial division. “This project will provide much-needed emergency services, along with the ability to bring in new revenue for the county by initiating a fresh tenant leasing program for this desirably-located property.”
The former insurance company campus also includes a 150,000-square-foot building at 1650 Los Gamos Dr. owned by Cigna for a total of 465,000 square feet on 35 acres. The two-building complex is known as Marin Commons.
The county bought the larger of the two buildings in 2011 for $28.4 million for a total cost of $78.4 million for the building and rehab.
County officials considered another plan to build from scratch a 85,000-square-foot, $100-million building. Not only was the renovation less expensive, the space rented to outside tenants will bring in additional revenue.
The county has already leased about 72,000 square feet to a mix of tenants including Fusion Academy, Bright Horizons Daycare and Polyon Entertainment. Cassidy Turley is handling the leasing for the county and Cornish & Carey Commercial oversees leasing for Cigna.
“We had a longstanding goal to have an emergency operations center that could withstand a major earthquake,” said Marin County Administrator Matthew Hymel. “We bought the building when it was really a good time to buy. The project came in on time and on budget, so overall we’re very pleased.”
The rehab involved structural improvements, seismic upgrades, installing 911 call center radio equipment, data centers and server technology, an interior redesign and new furnishings.
“Infrastructure and technology that is critical to the safety of the entire county will be housed in a seismically safe building designed specifically for that purpose,” said Robert Doyle, Marin County sheriff-coroner.