From the real estate listing for the property
The King County Council is expected to vote Tuesday on a funding package for the planned $56 million Broadway Crisis Care Center that would keep the process on track for a 2027 opening of the facility.
UPDATE 6:00 PM: The council approved the package Tuesday afternoon clearing the way for a $41 million purchase of the property including a financing plan that would include millions in projected revenue from leasing portions of the building, potentially to Harborview. The plan includes another $15 million for the costs of upgrading the facility and funding a contract operator. Officials said Tuesday the funding includes resources to address public safety concerns including environmental design spending and funding security resources for the contract operator. The spending plan also will include transportation funding for patients after their stay at the center. An ordinance authorizing the issuance of bonds for Harborview to lease a portion of the property passed 6-3. The core financial ordinance to fund the builidng’s purchased was approved unanimously.
UPDATE 10/8/2025 9 AM: “Today, we’re responding to voters’ mandate to expand care and delivering on our commitment to ensuring anyone in crisis can receive timely, appropriate mental health care and treatment for substance use disorder when and where they need it,” King County Executive Shannon Braddock said in a statement sent to CHS. “This marks a critical step forward in expanding access to urgent behavioral health care across our region.”
“As we move ahead, our commitment remains firm: we will continue working closely with community members, the King County Council, and the City of Seattle to shape a center that reflects our shared needs and values — one that provides essential care today and builds a foundation for long-term impact for years to come.”
In its statement, the county also emphasized it has analyzed the property “as part of our standard due diligence process and is aware that repairs and maintenance have been needed.”
“These repairs and maintenance have consistently been a part of our financial planning,” the statement reads. “We are confident we can make the proper modifications to bring a Crisis Care Center online in this building.”
Original report: Legislation enabling the purchase of the former Polyclinic property at Broadway and Union was passed out of the council’s finance committee in September but not without debate over concerns surrounding the planned 24-7 walk-in and emergency care mental health clinic that would be the second location in a planned network of five centers across the county.
In September, the King County Council’s budget committee approved a set of ordinances to set up the fund that will pay for the acquisition and operation of the new levy-powered mental health crisis center at Broadway and Union as part of a planned $1.25 billion network of five facilities across the county.
During that session, officials made assurances around public safety and outreach including an approved proviso amendment from King County Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda she says will require the county to live up to the City of Seattle’s conditional requirements for the project including a Seattle Police Department review of public safety conditions around the proposed facility and the formation of a new citizen advisory committee to oversee the center.
The September approvals also included questions around a more than $10 million assignment fee Seattle developer Guntower Capital is set to receive from its part in the Polyclinic deal.
Questions about possible costs of upgrading the facility were also raised but neither of the issues scuttled the procedural votes from committee chair Rod Dembowski to move the ordinances forward.
“There are very few places in King County they can walk into. Because of this, they are suffering in our streets,” committee member and King County Council chair Girmay Zahilay said during the September session that moved the plan forward.
Tuesday afternoon, the full council could approve the finance committee’s proviso and funding package.
The county received more key support Tuesday morning in an op-ed in the Seattle Times from Anita Peebles and Leigh Curl-Dove, pastors at Seattle First Baptist Church across the street from the planned facility.
“In addition to seeing people in crisis, we also see people in recovery every day at our church. Treatment works, and making it easier to access will help countless individuals, families, and communities,” the pastors write. “We see the need all around us in this neighborhood, and right now, the King County Council has the opportunity to meet the need. We have to start somewhere.”
Beyond the church’s support, the crisis center has also received conditional support from Mayor Bruce Harrell, and letters of support from the Capitol Hill Community Council and workers at the Capitol Hill Library.
In July, Rep. Shaun Scott and Seattle City Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck threw their support behind the Broadway and Union plan.
CHS Broadway Crisis Care Center Timeline
- 8/12/2022 — ‘Regional network’ would add new centers in Seattle for people suffering mental crisis
- 9/27/2022 — County property tax would fund $1.25B plan to build new mental health care centers
- 2/1/2023 — King County voters to decide on Crisis Care Centers Levy in April
- 4/25/2023 — $1.25B Crisis Care Centers levy Proposition 1 on way to approval with King County voters
- 3/12/2025 — First county Crisis Care Center opening in Kirkland with plans for $1.25B network in place by 2030
- 5/13/2025 — King County planning Crisis Care Center at Broadway and Union
- 5/19/2025 — ‘In crisis’ — County makes case for Crisis Care Center on Broadway amid biz owner pushback
- 5/27/2025 — County working on next steps in Capitol Hill Crisis Care Center plan
- 7/1/2025 — Scott and Rinck holding ‘Crisis Care Center Townhall’ on Capitol Hill
- 7/7/2025 — ‘Placing it in the heart of the city makes sense’ — State, county, and city leaders working to shape Broadway Crisis Care Center plan
- 7/21/2025 — County can’t yet say who will run it but officials answering as many questions as they can about possible Broadway Crisis Care Center
- 8/15/2025 — Mayor’s conditions for $56M Broadway Crisis Care Center plan include Seattle Police safety sign-off, citizen advisory committee
- 9/3/2025 — More letters join mayor’s conditional support for Broadway Crisis Care Center plan
- 9/9/2025 — King County Council mulling pause in Broadway Crisis Care Center process
- 9/11/2025 — In key vote, King County Council committee moves plan for $56M Broadway Crisis Care Center forward with promises on public safety and oversight
- 9/18/2025 — ‘The intermediary got a really good deal’ — County says development firm’s ‘flip’ of $42M Broadway Crisis Care Center property squares up
Approved by county voters in 2023, the crisis center levy was planned to raise as much as $1.25 billion to fund creation of the five care facilities and increase mental health services in the county. In addition to the county buying and owning the properties, the levy provides companies like Connections that runs the first center in the network in Kirkland access to operations funding plus $2 million annually “in workforce funding to support, strengthen, and recruit their workforce.”
The Crisis Centers must provide 24/7 walk-in care, 23-Hour Observation Units for patients brought in by police “to receive immediate care to stabilize and stay for up to 23 hours,” and “crisis stabilization beds” where individuals can stay for up to 14 days “to receive focused behavioral health treatment.”
Kelly Rider, director of the county’s Department of Community and Human Services, says that the Polyclinic site offers a number of hard-to-find advantages, saying is large enough to support the Crisis Care Center, which calls for 30,000 square feet of space, it has the right zoning, and the facility is already built out for health care services.
The Broadway location has faced pushback from area property and business owners who have complained that the center is close to schools including Seattle University and businesses including the Silver Cloud Inn and will add to public safety concerns around the troubled area surrounding the Broadway and Pike QFC.
The county council’s votes are hoped by officials to keep the process around the planned center on track as key deadlines arrive in the purchase agreement with UnitedHealth Group’s Optum subsidiary. The county’s Department of Community and Human Services said previously a purchase and sale agreement was put in place for the former Polyclinic facility in January with hopes of closing the deal by the end of summer.
In an update posted this week, the county department made the case that it has provided opportunities for “robust” public engagement about the location, saying it has hosted “nearly 60 community conversations, presentations, walking tours and other events.”
“What we heard, overwhelmingly, is that people want a place to go and receive urgent behavioral health care,” the King County DCHS statement reads, promising next steps will include a “Good Neighbor Policy,” Seattle Police “Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design” recommendations, and ongoing “virtual community meetings” including a session on October 14th.
“King County is taking concrete action to address some of the concerns we have heard,” the update reads.
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Chyaaaaa…Yuh think?…lol
I can’t believe all the people who want the problem to simply vanish w/o any changes other than make them public enemy #1 and forgo any priorities.
Indeed we do. There must be places for people expierencing severe mental distress to be able to go to get the help they need. Every part of our region needs places like this.
This is the end of the hill. Mark it.
if someone is ranting and raving at the sky, bring them here. if they’re brought in twice – lock. them. up.
Going by your own definition you will become a regular in no time :-)
Remember when the city located a giant homeless shelter with no rules in Little Saigon with no rules and a year later the neighborhood looked like a bomb went off and Viet Wah burned to the ground? That is what was just set in motion for Capitol Hill. This is not a community facility to help people in the neighborhood. It is a place where drug addicts with melted brains will be brought from all over the state and dumped on Capitol Hill so there neighborhoods and cities can clean up their streets at our expense.
You are 100% correct. People are so naive to think this center won’t be a magnet that brings more drug dealing, disorder and chaos to the neighborhood.
The cops have a safety plan in place. You saying they can’t do it?
This program is entirely voluntary and does not offer treatment, which is why it’s called Crisis Care instead of Crisis treatment.
I spoke directly with the operator of the Kirkland site. When someone is experiencing a severe drug-induced episode, Seattle Fire Department can bring them here to safely come down from their high. The facility provides a recliner for rest, calming wall colors, food, clothing, and access to a shower. Individuals can stay for up to 23 hours—after which Medicaid coverage ends.
Individuals are not returned to the location where they were picked up; instead, they leave through the front door with a bus pass or similar.
Yes, there are a few beds available for those who qualify and choose to stay up to 14 days, but that represents a small portion of the population served. Even after the 14-day stay, there is no continuing care. This model may work for individuals who have a home and family to return to, but not for those currently in crisis and living on the streets. It will be a revolving door and does nothing to solve the issues we see on our streets.
This is the truth. Ask Kelly Rider, the Director at the DCHS, and the architect. Or Connections (the for-profit equity-backed business that runs the Kirkland site and will run this site.)
One more thing to note. This only works if/when Medicaid funds are available. Given what is occurring nationally with Medicaid funding, the site may never fully function as designed. Maybe good for the neighbors, but a horrible waste of funds that could have gone towards much-needed treatment. But the County will own (another) expensive, old building and will point fingers at Washington, DC, for the failure rather than their own short-sighted planning and overspending on real estate we didn’t need.
Once they leave and realize the cornucopia of trouble they can get into right outside the doors, that bus pass they’re given will fall by the wayside, and the neighborhood can enjoy some new houseless neighbors slumped over in random places.
This place is going to just be more of a magnet for problems that are already all too common on the Hill.
Maybe instead of working a job and paying taxes that barely let me survive in the city, I should become a drug addict instead. At least I’ll get free food, clothing, shelter, a shower, even a recliner!
Btw, I knew a social worker who worked at the Kirkland crisis center this place will be run by. She said it was a dysfunctional shit show. Most of the donations are used to pay the high-level administrators. These agencies engage in grift and we just gave them a gift of millions. Congratulations, Seattle!
Hello from the Math Department:
I attended the four-hour King County Council meeting yesterday and have spent 100+ hours educating myself on and tracking the progress of the initiative, learning all I can about DCHS and their strengths and (esp of late) sad shortcomings and financial mismanagement.
From the Seattle Times – “The County plans to build a 16-bed mental health residential treatment facility on another floor of the building and lease the remaining…”
Three things:
As LCD Soundsystem says:
Seattle, I love you, but you’re bring me down.
Like a death of the heart, Jesus where do I start.
Thanks for this. This has always been a done deal with little opportunity for public input.
Like kiosks?
“The County is spending 56M to acquire and develop the Polyclinic. 16 beds. That’s a staggering 3.5M per a bed. There is no way we succeed at that cost.”
Your whole premise is bogus. I stopped reading right there.
3.5 million per bed?
Wellll…What about the rest of the clinic? Or is it just 16 beds in the middle of a floor of the building and vacant everywhere else? Is there no other activities going on in that building? Just the 16 beds eh?
IMO? You wasted your time.
lock them up now