Two major healthcare projects on Vashon — the Seattle Indian Health Board’s (SIHB) Thunderbird Treatment Center and Sea Mar Community Health Centers’ in-town primary care clinic — recently hit major milestones from King County Permitting on their projects after months of work and waiting.
SIHB announced May 9 that it has acquired the final approval needed to begin construction on the Thunderbird Treatment Center. The 92-bed facility will, on its own, increase the number of inpatient beds in King County by 62% when completed in 2026.
“I can report that the construction firm that we are employing will be on site on May 27 to begin work to remodel the existing facility,” SIHB spokesperson Andrew Guillen said Tuesday, May 13 in an email. “We are now planning for a 12-month timeline. Given the delay in receiving an approved permit until last week, the opening date is obviously pushed back into 2026. We are also planning on using this time to build out a clinic site to be located within the new structure. This will allow for on-site comprehensive medical services to take place at the new facility instead of with our mobile health unit.”
As of press time on Tuesday, May 13, King County is ready to issue the permit for the project to convert the vacant building there — the former site of assisted living center Vashon Community Care — to a community residential facility where SIHB will offer a 45-day intensive inpatient treatment program for those recovering from addiction to alcohol or other drugs.
(As The Beachcomber explored last year, a community residential facility is an allowed use on the property, and it was an allowed use even prior to zoning changes that came with last year’s passage of the updated King County Comprehensive Plan.)
“All reviews are completed and approved,” King County Permitting Department Director Jim Chan said in an email May 12. “[King County is] waiting on financial guarantees/bonds and payment of inspection fees. Once received from [the] applicant, [the] permit will be issued for construction.”
The permit update comes with 58 conditions — essentially, requirements or cautions at the property while building. Those conditions include monitoring a set of hedge plantings, installing carbon monoxide and smoke alarms, repairing any damage to sidewalks resulting from construction, and limiting the dust kicked up during hauling operations.
”Conditions are standard and determined to be feasible (not severe or complicated),” Chan said. “Otherwise, [the] permit would not receive approval nor issuance.”
Transforming Age, the previous owner of Vashon Community Care, sold the property in March 2023 for $11 million to an LLC overseen by the SIHB. In March 2024 — more than a year ago — a Tacoma architecture and design firm filed the permit application on behalf of the Health Board for the facility.
Congressional money for the SIHB project received through U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal’s office was part of the Fiscal Year 23 federal budget, and was unaffected by recent federal policy decisions, said Guillen.
Meanwhile, Sea Mar got its permit to begin work at the old Spinnaker Restaurant building on April 4. Building demolition finished at the property earlier this month.
Sea Mar owns the property and plans to build a new two-story clinic there, where they’ll have more room for medical and dental care, plus a more accessible location. Sea Mar hopes to finish construction around April or May next year, according to Executive Vice President Mary Bartolo.
The permit issuance for Sea Mar’s project came with 60 conditions, which, similar to the Thunderbird Treatment Center, are for standard tasks and requirements at the property.
Sea Mar purchased the Spinnaker property in November 2022, for $1.15 million, after it split with Vashon Health Care District, which had subsidized Sea Mar since 2020 for its operation of Vashon’s Sunrise Ridge healthcare clinic.
Sear Mar first applied for the permit to build its new clinic in-town in June 2023. That means it’s been nearly two years of working with, and waiting for King County to finally acquire the permit to tear down and rebuild that property.
