News - Local News

POSTED: Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2008

Bellingham buys downtown land for parking

BELLINGHAM - The city will spend $1.53 million in parking funds to buy downtown land, which it will use immediately for public parking while looking to develop it with a parking structure.

The City Council on Monday, Dec. 8, voted 7-0 to purchase .71 acres from The Bank of the Pacific, which recently foreclosed on the land and took ownership of it. The property is located at the corner of Maple Street and Cornwall Avenue, right behind Boundary Bay Brewery & Bistro.

Nearly a year ago, the city conducted appraisals and proposed buying it for roughly $2 million. That was when it was still owned by Cornwall Properties, which bought it for $700,000 in January 2006. The deal never made it past city staff approvals to get to the council, said Patty Fernandez, real property manager at Bellingham Public Works.

Cornwall Properties defaulted on a $348,000 loan from The Bank of the Pacific, and the bank took control of the property Sept. 30. Bill Maris, owner of Cabochon Construction and Development, is president of Cornwall Properties.

The price the city pays has to be based on an appraisal. The first appraisal put the value at about $2 million and a recent one at about $1.7 million, but the price was lowered to reflect current market conditions.

"It's an unfortunate advantage for the city in terms of the real estate price," said Frank Ordway, chairman of the city's Parking Commission. "It's great that we were able to save some money. It's sad that it took a worldwide economic meltdown to make the property affordable."

Money for the property comes from Parking Services department revenues, which include money from parking meters and tickets.

In the short term, the city will continue to use the property for parking, said Dick McKinley, director of Bellingham Public Works. In the long run, the city will look toward redevelopment of the property, possibly by entering a partnership with a private developer and putting up a mixed-use building that includes public parking.

It's in a good location because it can serve existing downtown residents and businesses and still service redevelopment of the waterfront, McKinley said. The city doesn't have a timeline for developing the property.

Fernandez said the city hopes to close on the sale by the end of the year.