KING COUNTY READINESS CENTER PREDESIGN
Washington Military Department | North Bend, Washington
Completed: 2026
This project originated with the desire to implement WAARNG’s “Regional Mission Alignment” initiative, which seeks to evolve WAARNG’s readiness posture from community-based to regional-based readiness center facilities, in Washington’s most populous county. To achieve this, the Washington Military Department would relocate the current housed units at the Seattle Readiness Center to a new facility in North Bend. Disposal of King County’s largest readiness facility would mitigate serious functional and site deficiencies that seriously detract from the Seattle Readiness Center’s ability to support its mission. The central purpose of this project is to provide a cost-effective, operationally efficient, and survivable facility for administrative, training, and storage purposes. Transferring operations to a site more appropriate for these purposes will allow the existing site to be re-purposed for maximum public benefit.
An all-new facility offers the opportunity to create a capable and flexible operations environment serving the administrative, training, and storage needs for King County’s largest Washington Army National Guard facility. It will co-locate the HDC, Alpha Company, and Bravo Company units of the 181st Brigade Support Battalion from their current quarters in Seattle to a modern facility that promotes effective and holistic training, critical thinking, decision-making, communication, and teamwork. It will be an efficient, technology-driven facility that affords highly standardized and cost-effective operations environments for the tenant organizations. The new KCARC will meet current code for an essential facility, designed to be survivable and functioning at full operational capacity in the event of a disaster, and it will be located directly off Interstate 90 for rapid deployment. An effectively implemented KCARC will enhance the effectiveness of military operations and become an important resource for Washington State.
The predesign process included programming workshops with representatives of HDC, Alpha Company, and Bravo Company to identify critical needs, determine appropriate plan layouts, and conceptualize development options related to phasing. Stated needs were then compared against space allotments established by DD Form 1390/91 provided by National Guard Bureau, and a comprehensive predesign report weighing multiple means of executing the project was submitted for WA’s Office of Financial Management approval, which was received without the need for revisions to the report.