Whatcom County Council voted 6-0-1 on November 5 to approve an eight-year lease for a new Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office headquarters, located in a 30,000-square-foot office in Bellingham’s Cordata neighborhood.
The annual base rent in 2026 will be $507,132, and the lease will require the county pay property taxes, insurance and operating and maintenance costs estimated at $250,000 annually, according to county documents. The rent will increase 3.75 percent annually, and the county estimates it will spend $1.5 million on one-time upgrades to the facility.
WCSO is currently headquartered in the basement of the county jail in downtown Bellingham. The space was never intended to be used as a law enforcement office, and has been overcrowded for years, according to previous reporting by The Northern Light.
County projects and operations manager Rob Ney told the council finance and administrative services committee that the new facility will vastly improve WCSO’s evidence capacity. Response times in north Whatcom County will see improvement thanks to the location on Guide Meridian Road, and the county will be able to focus resources on building the new jail rather than constructing a new sheriff’s office, Ney said.
Council agreed that the lease was well within market rate for similar-sized commercial properties, though some members had trepidation over the ownership of the building, at 4600 Ryzex Way.
A point of contention in the vote had to do with the building owner, current county planning commissioner and former county councilmember Rud Browne, who served District 1 from 2014 to 2022.
Browne is the founder and CEO of Ryanna Capital LLC, an investment firm focusing on green businesses, which is the official landlord of the commercial property, according to the lease. Ryanna Capital purchased the property in 1996 for $320,404, and the property is now worth over $3.8 million, according to the Whatcom County Auditor’s Office. Printing technology manufacturer Ryzex, Inc. previously occupied the building.
District 5 councilmember Ben Elenbaas said the county found the best deal it could within its search parameters, saying he wasn’t bothered by the relationship.
“It’s hands down the best deal,” Elenbaas said. “I’m going to stand up and proudly vote in support of this. I have no feelings of anything inappropriate going on here with this contract. I think it’s a great deal for the taxpayers. I think it’s an even better deal for the sheriff’s office that suffered an inadequacy in their dungeon for too long.”
District 2 councilmember Todd Donovan abstained from the vote due to the possible conflict of interest and financial uncertainty, but said he understood the need for a new office and called the opportunity to lease the property “fantastic.” Donovan was the only councilmember to abstain.
The first year of the lease will be paid through the capital facilities reserve fund. A source for lease payments in 2027 and beyond will need to be identified and approved by council.
