A landlord-tenant relationship at the Sunset Recreation Center seems to be taking off. The former Broadway Middle School transformed into child care, athletic facilities and office space after the purchase of the building in January 2021.

The Sunset Empire Park and Recreation District Board of Directors took a look at the agreement at last Tuesday’s meeting.

Lease talks have only been informal conversations at this point, park district executive director Skyler Archibald said after the meeting,

“From the staff perspective, the relationship with NWRESD seems to be working well and is mutually beneficial,” Archibald said. “They’re very interested in the property. They understand kind of our timing. I shared with them that if we proceeded we would be hesitant to sign a long-term lease but something short term, maybe 12 to 24 months, and they were very open to that.”

The Northwest Regional Educational Service District took occupancy of more than 8,000 square feet last summer.

The lease began Aug. 1 and runs until July 31, 2023, annual rent is $73,840, payable in quarterly installments. After the first year of the agreement, the annual rental income will increase by 1.5% from the previous year’s amount, to $81,650. The lease agreement includes a cost per square foot and a stipulation for the service district to cover their portion of utilities.

The lease agreement includes exclusive use of the counseling offices, three classrooms and the computer lab as well as a janitor closet nearby. It includes a shared space of hallways and a men’s and women’s restroom located nearby.

The park district leases the service district one of the classrooms for storage.

“If we were to proceed down the road of discussing the lease, there would probably need to be some hard insulation of doors or temporary walls to secure their part of the property,” Archibald said. “They don’t necessarily need it secured to the point that anybody couldn’t have emergency access through those areas but they’d like to kind of secure the building, and that makes sense for access purposes.”

Heat in the building is still a bit of an ongoing issue, Archibald said. “The heat works extremely well in some parts of the building, not quite as well as others,” he said. “I would expect that repairing the HVAC system will be an initial priority for us once we get the strategic plan back and start to move forward.”

Lease conversations are expected to begin mid-summer, he said.

The education service district shares the park district’s optimism.

“We continue to be excited about the partnership with the park district,” Dan Goldman, executive director of the education service district said. “The services provided by both agencies are complementary and, as we hopefully come out of the darkest days of the pandemic, we will help one another to multiply the impacts of our limited resources for children, families and community members. The facility, as aged as it is, needs quite a bit of TLC; but to date, the park district team has been responsive to our needs. We are looking forward to the continued collaboration and to serving the residents of Clatsop County from our new home in Seaside.”