County to apply $750,000 state clean-buildings grant to courthouse energy upgrades; commissioners raise replacement-cost question

Spokane County staff told commissioners on June 10 that the county has been awarded roughly $750,000 under a state program supporting Clean Buildings Act compliance and that the funds will be used for predesign work, engineering and planning for a multiyear courthouse energy-efficiency project.

Staff said the award is formulaic under legislation passed in 2024 and will be used to offset planning and design costs that were already underway; staff indicated the Department of Commerce also expects to enroll the county as an "early adopter" for utility-related savings and rebates, with Avista identified as the utility partner expected to reflect energy-savings benefits.

Commissioners asked about the project's scale and whether replacement of the courthouse would be cheaper than retrofits over the long term. Staff responded that multiple buildings on the sky-bridge-connected campus are treated as one building for EUI (energy-use-intensity) targets and that, because of historic-preservation constraints and integration with the Public Safety Building and jail, the project scope is large. Staff provided a rough square-foot replacement-cost comparison in the briefing as context and said the $750,000 award is an additional funding source that reduces the county's net project cost.

County staff noted the grant technically expires June 30 and that staff will sign the contract and pursue reimbursement and an extension if needed. No final design, construction contract, or funding appropriation for the broader retrofit project was presented at the briefing; staff said work already underway used earlier internal funding for predesign and that the Commerce award will reimburse those expenses.

Commissioners indicated interest in comparing lifecycle and replacement costs with retrofit alternatives and asked staff to explore replacement-cost estimates as part of the project's continued planning.