Washington County to purchase office warehouse in city for records storage
Mike Jones/Observer-Reporter
Washington County is planning to spend nearly $1 million to purchase the former Tri State Supply building in the city to store the county’s voluminous amount of records.
The commissioners unanimously voted during Thursday night’s meeting to spend $925,000 to buy the office warehouse at 371 W. Chestnut St. next to the U.S. Post Office in Washington.
The purchase is based on terms in a letter of intent on July 12 accepted by the property owners – listed in county tax assessment records as JVZ Holdings, Inc. of Pittsburgh – and is contingent upon an inspection of the building.
The building, which was built in 1967 but has been vacant recently following Tri State Supply’s relocation to Buffalo Township, will allow the county to move its records out of the seven-story storage building at 20 S. Main St. in the city across from the courthouse. Commission Chairman Nick Sherman said the county has been spending about $7,000 a month leasing the space to store records, so the purchase will save money in the long run.
“The county has spent an exorbitant amount to rent office space on Main Street,” Sherman said. “It’s bad for two reasons: It’s very expensive to rent that space, and two, we’re looking for a revitalization of Main Street, so to move those files out of there and get it to a more functional property, maybe a salon or café or even a law office. As long as we were renting, there was no incentive for (the building owners) to do anything with that property.”
The seven-story building that’s currently being used has more than 15,000 square feet of storage available, along with 3,600 square feet in retail space and 3,600 square feet listed as a support area. The former Tri State Supply warehouse the county intends to purchase is listed as having nearly 15,000 square feet in storage, along with another 2,461 square feet in office space. In addition, the West Chestnut Street warehouse is only one floor, making it safer and easier for records transfers and storage.
“It’s one level of storage, which is way more conducive than having our county staff running up and down stairs,” Sherman said. “It’s a win-win-win.”
There is also a fenced-in parking lot that would allow the Washington County Sheriff’s Office to have a secure place to park its numerous vehicles, while also offering office space for the department if and when the Courthouse Square building is razed and a new public safety center is built on that property.
It’s not known when the sale will close or when the county will be able to begin moving records into the building.
“We want to get rolling on it,” Sherman said. “The building has already been appraised (and) we’ve done our walk-through. We’re happy with the building.”
The warehouse has an assessed value of $781,500, according to the county’s tax website.
In addition to the expected movement of records storage, the Clerk of Courts office moved out of Courthouse Square and back into its old location at the courthouse last month. The prothonotary’s office just finished its move to the Crossroads Center building across the street from Courthouse Square, and the register of wills and orphans court is in the process of moving into Crossroads, which should happen early next month.