King County Buys Crisis Center Property For $33 Million

Seattle’s King County is growing its real estate holdings, trading rent payments for ownership as it builds out its voter-backed behavioral health network.

King County acquired the Connections Kirkland crisis center at 11410 Northeast 122nd Way in Kirkland’s Totem Lake for $32.6 million, the Puget Sound Business Journal reported, citing documents filed by the county. The price amounts to $487 per square foot.

The county bought the 67,000-square-foot facility from an entity tied to San Francisco-based Roxborough Group. The Roxborough Group purchased the building in 2019 for $35.7 million. The 1990-built property has an assessed value of $18 million.

The acquisition marks a change in occupancy strategy at the site, as the county had planned to lease there through 2039. By buying the property, the county will save nearly $2.3 million in lease payments.

The purchase adds to a growing portfolio of county-owned behavioral health facilities as local governments lean on real estate acquisitions to accelerate mental health infrastructure.

King County made a similar move late last year when it paid $39.4 million for 1145 Broadway in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, slated to become Seattle’s second crisis center. Phoenix-based Connections Health Solutions, the operator at the Kirkland facility, will run the Capitol Hill crisis center when it opens by the end of next year.

Voters approved a nearly $1.3 billion property tax levy in 2023 to fund five 24/7 crisis centers and other mental health treatment programs in King County. The Kirkland outpost was the first to open, in August 2024. Connections originally planned to buy the building using levy funds, but that would have triggered $7.3 million in taxes not covered by the levy, leading the county to instead acquire the facility directly to avoid those costs and save on rent.

The Connections Kirkland facility last year served more than 3,600 people with more than 5,400 visits, according to the office of King County Executive Girmay Zahilay. In a letter to King County Council chair Sarah Perry, Zahilay noted that surplus space at the Kirkland center, which is bigger than what is needed only for crisis care operations, could “provide opportunities for future expansion or co-location of even more services” by the county, including care covered by Medicaid and state funds.

— Chris Malone Méndez