Construction on Bend’s new 80,000-square-foot county and state office building will begin before the end of the year, a county official said Monday.

Crews will construct one building and renovate several others to create more office space in the next several months, said Descutes County Administrator Mike Maier.

Construction could be finished by May 2004, County Commission Chairman Tom DeWolf said.

The building will serve as the commission’s new home as well as the offices of the county assessor, clerk, finance, treasurer, personnel, risk management and other administrative staff.

The building also will house state offices for the departments of human services and justice.

The roughly $12 million structure will be located between the Bend Parkway and Hill Street on the north side of Lafayette Avenue.

To pay for the building, the county would issue bonds and lease about 40,000 square feet to the state, Maier said.

The state would repay the bonds by paying rent – $1.25 per square foot – to the county. County staff will be on the second floor while a boardroom and the state’s offices will reside on the ground floor.

The building’s design provides for the addition of a third floor if the area’s growth necessitates more space, DeWolf said.

Soon after the new building is completed, the District Attorney’s Office will move from the old courthouse into the county commission’s current home on Northwest Harriman Street, at a cost of about $300,000.

The District Attorney’s Office will be the sole occupant in its new location, Maier said.

The extra space in the old courthouse, 1164 NW Bond St., will be used to build two courtrooms with video capability at a cost of about $1.2 million, DeWolf said.

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Maier said the old courthouse would then house only state court offices.

The Deschutes County Services Building – which currently houses the Assessor’s Office, the Finance Department, the Treasure and the County Clerk, among others – will also be remodeled for roughly $400,000 to make space for a private day-care center that would serve state and county employees.

DeWolf said other possible tenants for that building include Commission on Children and Families of Deschutes County programs.

A county Mental Health Department program located on Hill Street must relocate by early December because of its proximity to the office building construction site, said Gary Smith, director of the department.

Park Place, a five-bed residential home for the mentally ill on Hill Street, will rent a house south of the St. Charles Medical Center for about $1,300 a month.

This week, Mental Health Department staff will begin visiting neighbors within a 200-foot radius of the Park Place’s new location to inform them of the move. Smith declined to give the address so neighbors would learn from Mental Health Department staff instead of the newspaper, he said.

Park Place would remain at the new location until the opening of the planned crisis resolution center, which could happen as soon as December 2003, Smith said.

The county has projected Park Place’s relocation to cost about $50,000, according to county documents.

County officials are currently negotiating with Midstate Electric Cooperative in La Pine to obtain its building located on the community’s south end.

The building would become the South County Service Center, said Susan Mayea Ross, a county senior management analyst.

The county plans to offer about $2 million for the building and surrounding seven acres, then spend $500,000 renovating it Ross and Maier said.

The center would include a local Sheriff’s Office and local offices of the Health, Mental Health, Community Development and Road departments.

Ross said the county hopes to make an offer next month, and, if successful, begin renovations in March.

Also proposed is a 24,000-square-foot warehouse on the corner of Lafayette and the Parkway, county officials said.

County archives and the Information Technology office, among others, would be housed there.

That project would cost an estimated $2.9 million, according to county documents.

A construction timetable is still being determined, said Deschutes County Commissioner Dennis Luke.

None of these projects will require an increase in taxes, DeWolf said.

Mike Cronin can be reached at 541-617-7836 or mcronin@bendbulletin.com