Bainbridge Island Senior Community Center mulls expansion with housing

BAINBRIDGE ISLAND – The Bainbridge Island Senior Community Center bustles with activity throughout the week. Dancing, card games, book discussions, entertainment and more draw people to the beloved community institution in downtown Winslow. During the pandemic, the space was used for vaccine clinics. The center has hosted forums, and serves as a severe weather shelter.

The senior center, now an amalgamation of three buildings, has been nestled in its current location between Bjune Drive and Brien Drive since 1983 in one form or another. Membership has grown, doubling over the last five years to about 1,800 at the end of 2022, and executive director Reed Price estimated that the facility’s programming reaches more than 2,300 people annually. The facility at times can feel cramped, Price said.

Could an expansion be in order? Might the location be right for housing too? Some early plans have begun to form around those concepts, but anything beyond that is still to be determined.

Price noted that an expansion was considered in 2007 and an extensive feasibility study was put together then, but the idea didn’t move forward.

“If it was good idea in 2007," he said, "it’s a better idea today."

The facility currently measures out at about 6,200 square feet, and Price said some early plans that senior center officials have mulled could see the space double to about 12,000 square feet, with space for parking, the thrift store the center houses, meeting and activity space and a large hall. Any housing would grow the square footage further.

Discussions around the proposed expansion are still at an early phase. The concept was presented to the facility's membership at the center's recent annual meeting.

“I’m encouraged by the idea that I haven’t really met any resistance to the idea that this is a good idea,” Price said. “I’m hoping that we’ll identify a number of partners who will help us figure out how to do it. It is a little intimidating, but I think that it’s an identified community need.”

The site is operated by the senior center’s nonprofit entity but is owned by the city of Bainbridge Island, and an expansion would need to gain a green light from city officials.

City spokeswoman Shannon Hays confirmed to the Kitsap Sun that the senior center has been in touch with City Manager Blair King on the topic but emphasized that discussion has been preliminary in nature and noted that the City Council has yet to consider the idea.

In addition to a rework of the senior center space, could some sort of senior housing work at the site? Price said the senior center’s initial planning has considered the idea of adding a pair of stories of housing atop the community spaces.

“That kind of depends on what the city thinks,” Price said. “In our draft plan, we’re making a nod toward the idea of, ‘How can we integrate housing with this?’ That’s one of the next questions.”

Price pointed to the results of a survey that city officials recently received in which respondents were asked about the idea of building an addition to the center for senior affordable housing. Nearly two thirds of respondents indicated they “strongly” or “somewhat” supported the idea.

“There’s sort of an underlying sense that the community thinks that this might be a good location to look at that,” Price said. “If we’re going to do housing, it would be a good time to the do the community center and vice versa. It all kind of seems like the right thing to do.”