Sonoma County Approves $49.5 Million Purchase of 400 Aviation Blvd. Office Building Near the Airport

Sonoma County now owns a second major government hub north of Santa Rosa. On Tuesday, Oct. 6, the Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 to buy the office building at 400 Aviation Blvd., near the Charles M. Schulz–Sonoma County Airport, for $49.5 million.

The building and the price

The three-story, roughly 132,000-square-foot building sits on a 7.65-acre parcel and was completed in 2016 as the headquarters of American AgCredit, according to the county staff report. The county already leases about 73,000 square feet there for Public Infrastructure and Regional Parks, at about $2.05 million a year.

The price is $6.6 million below the $56.1 million purchase option the county pursued last year. That earlier deal stalled amid pay-to-play allegations raised by SEIU Local 1021, the county's largest employee union, and questions about how it was negotiated, the Press Democrat reported. An expedited appraisal presented Tuesday valued the property at $50.3 million.

Who moves in

Under County Executive David Guhin's revised plan, the building would house about 400 employees, adding human resources, IT and emergency services, including an emergency operations center, the Press Democrat reported. The county may need up to $22.9 million more for relocation, technology and furnishings, though that money has not yet been appropriated.

Supervisor Lynda Hopkins credited critics with improving the deal. "We are getting a better deal for taxpayers," she said, according to the Press Democrat.

The union still opposes the purchase. Its political lead, Ryan Williams, told the board the new plan was a significant financial improvement but said the county never formally looked for alternatives.

A smaller new county center

In a separate unanimous vote, supervisors approved a $675,000 pre-construction contract with McCarthy Building Companies for a new County Government Center to replace the roughly 70-year-old main campus on Mendocino Avenue. The county says buying 400 Aviation shrinks that planned building by about 30,000 square feet and cuts estimated construction costs by $35 million to $40 million.