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Lakehaven Headquarters Building
Join Us!
Celebrating the opening of the Lakehaven Headquarters Building
31627A 1st Avenue South, Federal Way
Tours will be provided and cookies, soda and coffee will be served.
HEADQUARTERS FACILITY
The original Administration Building served the District well since the 1970’s, but with the passing of time, it was aging, undersized, and inefficient. The Lakehaven Board voted to do something that has been anticipated for along time: making an investment in a new Headquarters Facility. In 2010, the District began including a new facility in its capital improvement plans.
The new building replaces the old Administration Building, located on 1st Avenue (just north of 320th). With an increase in size, the new facility design brings more staff to a central location enabling them to conduct customer business more efficiently. The new building currently houses between 85-90 employees from Engineering, Water and Field Operations, along with administrative staff from Finance, IT, HR, Billing, Customer Services, Purchasing, and the Executive Department. It is anticipated that the building will provide space for growth and be in service for well over 50 years.
This project redeveloped approximately 7.6 acres of District land to include a new main Headquarters building, a vehicle storage building, new driving lanes, about 156 parking stalls and other onsite improvements, as well as frontage and main entrance improvements along 1st Ave South. Fencing and gates were installed to make non-public areas secure.
Two electric vehicle charging stations available to the public were also included on the north side of the public parking area. The charging stations are operated as part of the Charge point network. Portions of the facility, such as the Board Meeting Room, with seating capacity of about 150, may eventually be open for public uses. The lobby is the new home to the Historic Clock from Federal Way’s Old World Square dating back to 1956.
VEHICLE STORAGE BUILDING
The new vehicle storage building houses most of the District’s mobile fleet. The building is approximately 90’ x 216’ covering roughly 19,500square feet and features seven drive-through bays, each 30’ wide. Having the vehicles stored inside serves two purposes. First, it will help extend the service life of the emergency service vehicles, while secondarily reducing the risk of vehicle and tool theft or acts of vandalism.
THE WATERSHOP BUILDING
The existing Water Shop building which also stores vehicles, equipment, and supplies, has had its 15,000 square foot leaky roof replaced, extending the useful life of the building. Now that the new Headquarters building is in service, the shop’s office spaces have been made available to the electrical staff and provides added storage for parts and equipment.
Summer 2023
HEADQUARTERS FACTS
- Timeline
- 2014-2017
- Needs assessment and master plan completed.
- 2018
- Architect Helix Group selected and Preliminary Design initiated.
- 2019
- Parametrix was hired for Project/Construction Management.
- Project submitted for approval by state as GC/CM Project.
- 2020
- Lydig Construction selected as GC/CM.
- 2021
- Final Design/Permits.
- August: Land clearing.
- November: Groundbreaking.
- 2023
- February: Temporary Occupancy/Admin staff.
- April: Old building demolished and work to complete the parking area begins.
- Architect
- Helix Group
- Construction
- Lydig Construction
- Size
- 41,000 square feet
- Cost
- Entire project $53 million
- Headquarters Building $42 million
TOURS
Lakehaven is pleased to offer public tours of the new Lakehaven Headquarters Building, located at 31627AFirst Avenue South. Tours, which will last approximately 30-45 minutes, will be offered on the third Tuesday of each month through October and will begin at 10:00 a.m. in the main lobby.
Please contact Lisa Alexander at 253-946-5420, or Email to confirm your attendance.
BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS
- Don Miller, President
- Laura Belvin, Vice-President
- Peter Sanchez, Secretary
- Jeremy DelMar, Commissions
- Len Englund, Commissioner
CONTACT US
Headquarters History
About 50 years ago, three agencies serving the area: Lakehaven Sewer District, King County Water District 124, and King County Fire District 39 (KCFD) collaborated to buy a roughly 10-acre site in 1973 along 1st Avenue South, north of South 320th Street. Around that time, the water and sewer service population was somewhere around 50,000 people. Today the service population is over 120,000 people.
The first two buildings were initially completed in 1977 and 1978. KCFD 39 occupied a new fire station with its own administrative facilities, and the District occupied a smaller new administration building.
In 1987, the sewer and water districts formally merged into one entity called “Federal Way Water and Sewer” with a portion of Water District 56 in the Redondo/Woodmont area added soon after. On August 7, 1994, the District changed its name to "Lakehaven Utility District" and the Fire District later changed its name to South King Fire and Rescue. (On October 6, 2016 the District's name was officially changed to "Lakehaven Water and Sewer District" to better clarify the services it provides to the community.)
As the District grew and space constraints became more limiting, the District began to include additional funding in its capital improvement planning efforts to increase the service capacity of its existing site.
The Site
For Lakehaven, this location is a very strategic site. Not only is it fairly central to its overall service area, it sits above three highly productive underground aquifers to supply water to the community. One of these aquifers has enormous future storage potential which can be used to protect the community from future drought. So, maintaining an occupancy here was very important for the community’s needs.
