Private Mental Health Services Provider Occupies Two Floors at Office Building in Kirkland
By Randyl Drummer
CoStar News
August 13, 2024 | 12:09 P.M.
An expanding national provider of mental healthcare clinics has opened in an office park near Seattle as King County’s first facility for people in crisis to receive urgent walk-in mental healthcare.
Connections Health Solutions, based in Phoenix, opened in a 67,500-square-foot office building at Kirkland 405 Corporate Center in Kirkland, east of Seattle. The patient-care facility sits in 45,000 square feet on the first and second floor, with the remaining space on the top floor of the three-story building held for future expansion of services or administrative operations.
The behavioral health crisis response center is among the first place in the county where people can walk in to receive care for mental health or substance use emergencies, regardless of whether they have insurance coverage or the ability to pay, the private provider said in a statement.
The opening is the latest in a national expansion for Connections Health, which operates clinics in Arizona, Montana and Virginia, with plans to open more facilities in coming months as local and state governments deal with a shortage of mental health services in many cities.
The center, funded in part with $11.5 million from King County and $10 million in Washington Department of Commerce grants, has the capacity to help upward of 14,000 people a year. The center is slated to be open around the clock, every day of the year.
Connections is occupying the building under a long-term lease of the full building and is expected to employ 250 people, according to the Roxborough Group, the San Francisco-based private equity firm that owns two buildings totaling 132,000 square feet at the business park near the 405 Freeway and the Village at Totem Lake shopping center in Kirkland.
Roxborough Group’s buildings are now 95% leased to a mix of health and technology businesses, with a average lease term of more than 10 years, the company said.
Connections Health Solutions, founded in 2009, operates emergency walk-in centers in its headquarters city of Phoenix and in Tucson, Arizona. The provider also has a mobile crisis response unit in Bozeman, Montana, and recently opened a facility in Chantilly, Virginia.
Connections plans to open a center late this year in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and a facility in Woodbridge, Virginia, in the first half of 2025.
The company worked with representatives of the cities of Kirkland, Bothell, Kenmore, Lake Forest Park and Shoreline to open the center.
“The Connections model is proven to provide high-quality, treatment-focused care when individuals need it most, so they can avoid unnecessary hospital admissions and lessen the burden on the judicial system,” Connections CEO Colin LeClair said in the statement.
King County Executive Dow Constantine called the opening “a significant milestone” for the behavioral health response in the county. The region is working to open a network of five other crisis care centers to address an overextended mental health system.
For the Record
Joe Lynch and Dan Harden of Newmark arranged the lease with Connections Health Solutions on behalf of the Roxborough Group.