St. Anthony City, Parish, Agree on Expansion

New Development Recreating City's Downtown Core

by Brian Libby

The century-old St. Anthony Catholic Parish in Renton, Wash., one of the largest parishes in the Puget Sound area with more than 600 members and a school, had a problem.

A new 11,000-sq.-ft. gymnasium is the first part of a larger plan to expand St. Anthony Catholic Parish in Renton, Wash. Image courtesy of Bill Rutledge

Over the last few years, it had outgrown its space.

At the same time, the church is near Renton's downtown, an area that city leaders foresee as holding more mixed-use buildings of moderately high density. And while the city has always been friendly to the parish, officials clearly were wary of low-density church facilities eating up too much land.

Finally, after nearly three years of negotiation, the city of Renton and St. Anthony reached an agreement last year that will allow the parish to take over a block of city street as part of its expansion plans. Under the agreement, the church also guaranteed that it would not expand beyond its basic two-block area.

"The street vacation was very controversial," said Neil Watts, Development Services Director for the City of Renton. "We were initially against it, because while right now it doesn't create any traffic problems there might come a time in the future when the city might go, 'Golly, we wish we had a street there.' But the development agreement gave us the balance we wanted. The church is an important institution of the community and we want them there. It's a win-win situation."

Now that St. Anthony is free to expand into the street between its two blocks, parish administrator Greg McNabb said the church ultimately envisions a five-phase expansion that will probably extend over the next 10 or even 20 years, operating from a master plan designed by architect Bill Rutledge, a Seattle-based sole practitioner.

The first phase is a new gymnasium, but that could not begin until the street was readied with foundation work. GLY Construction of Bellevue, Wash. oversaw the job.

"The land down there is not the best for putting buildings on it," said GLY project manager Ryan McKinney. "We used auger cast piles to support the foundation system. Auger cast piles go an average of 25 ft. down. As they drill down and auger the dirt out, you pump concrete out through the drill bit."

Working in a guaranteed-maximum-price construction delivery format, the contractor is also laying foundations for expansion of future offices in addition to the gymnasium.

The 11,000-sq.-ft. gym is being built from concrete masonry unit cement blocks featuring multiple colors and textures. The roof is sloped with 5/12 pitch to match the existing church facility.

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The building also includes a few wood-framed walls inside to house some of the mechanical equipment and create a gymnasium office and storage space. The budget for the gym is about $1 million, which is part of an overall $3.5 million budget, including infrastructure and foundation work, for the first phase of the church expansion.

A particular challenge for GLY Construction has been a small jobsite in which construction workers are close to children attending St. Anthony's school.

"It's somewhat unique working with the students around in the facility," McKinney said. "With some other jobs, even if you're doing it real close-by, they pull the students away or pull whatever activity is going on. In this case, it was somewhat more merged because there just wasn't another place to go."

Despite the close quarters, the contractor has worked hard to minimize interruption and maximize safety. For example, while the playground was kept open, the student/parent drop-off area had to be relocated.

"There's a lot of coordination with what the school is doing," McKinney said. "The project superintendent meets daily with the school principal, and they talk about plans and activities for the day." The gym is currently under construction with a completion date targeted for early spring.

McNabb, St. Anthony's parish administrator, said the next phase of construction will probably be new meeting rooms and offices. The biggest work of all - remodeling and expanding the sanctuary and school, and relocating the social hall - will come later.

The school and sanctuary are about 75 and 50 years old, respectively, and the sanctuary is often too small to hold all the attending parishioners.