San Rafael, CA – More than a dozen members of the San Rafael Fire Department are temporarily moving to a County of Marin building for a few years while their new public safety building is being constructed in downtown San Rafael.
The Emergency Operations Facility at 1600 Los Gamos Drive in Terra Linda.The Marin County Board of Supervisors approved a license agreement with the City of San Rafael on January 10 so that the fire staff can share space at 1600 Los Gamos Drive, a Class A multitenant office building in northern Terra Linda that also serves as home to the Marin County Sheriff’s Office. The San Rafael Fire staff plans to relocate 12 to 14 staff members to Suite 345 of the 328,000-square-foot building; firefighters are moving to temporary downtown quarters while their new station is built. The 30-month lease is $4,000 per month for the first year with a 3 percent increase each year thereafter. Revenues will be used to offset the some of the costs of operating the facility.
The County’s property management firm, Sares Regis Group, and brokerage firm Cushman & Wakefield continue to market office space for lease at 1600 Los Gamos Drive and now has six leases with non-County entities there, adding $1.4 million in annual County revenue that partially offsets building operational costs.
About 50,000 square feet of office space remains available for rent at 1600 Los Gamos. In spring 2016, Averna Technologies entered into a leasing agreement there, becoming the fifth business or non-County agency to lease space at the site. Averna moved in on December 1.
The building serves as the County’s Emergency Operations Facility (EOF) and home to the Sheriff’s Office. The Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services is located there as well, and the County brought in extra staffing when the Emergency Operations Center was activated during the January 7-8 storm.
The County acquired the 328,000-square-foot Los Gamos building in 2011 at the bottom of the real estate market and made improvements so the public safety headquarters was more resistant to a large earthquake than the Sheriff’s previous home about two miles away at the Marin County Civic Center. Employees from the departments of Information Services and Technology, County Administrator, Health and Human Services and Public Works also work at the building.
In keeping with the Board of Supervisors’ sustainability goals, the building renovation earned Gold Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification because of its widespread use of reclaimed water, a photovoltaic array of 1,700 panels on the roof generating 740,000 kilowatt hours of electricity per year, and a diversion of more than 75 percent of construction waste away from landfills.