Who is Peter Paulsen, and why did he donate $50 million to a Bellingham hospital?
Bellingham is fortunate that Peter Paulsen saw its potential nearly 25 years ago.
Paulsen, who recently donated $50 million to expand Bellingham’s PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center, was pondering retirement in the late 1990s after a successful career in construction and real estate. He was living in the San Francisco Bay Area and had just sold a bank.
“I was looking for a smaller town and found Bellingham,” said Paulsen, 87, in a telephone interview with The Bellingham Herald. Now living in Phoenix, he noted that the size of Bellingham reminded him of some of the towns in Germany, his childhood home, with the added bonus of being on the water.
After moving to Bellingham, Paulsen, who had tried retirement before but it never seemed to stick, was ready to take on another project. One of the first questions he asked himself is why Bellingham has an amazing view of the bay but no hotel at the time to show it off to visitors.
Shirley McFearin, the Port of Bellingham’s director of real estate until she retired last year, remembers when she first met Paulsen. It turned out to be quite a consequential meeting, as Paulsen would later go on to build the Hotel Bellwether and a nearby office building, jump-starting the development of the area.
McFearin just happened to be in her port office at 625 Cornwall Ave. when Paulsen strolled in and informed her that he was interested in building a hotel on what is now Bellwether Way. McFearin described him as a high-energy personality who was very direct about what he wanted to accomplish.
“My first thought was... is this guy for real?” McFearin said.
After he left the office, McFearin didn’t think she’d see him again. But he was back a few weeks later, wanting to walk around the property. He showed her exactly where he wanted to put the hotel, grumbling about all the weeds that were growing in the area. That’s when McFearin realized Paulsen was serious.
While Paulsen was developing the Hotel Bellwether and later a nearby office building, McFearin would enjoy her project meetings with him over the years and his habit of walking straight into her office, much to the annoyance of office receptionists who would want him to wait in the lobby. His one other request was for a cup of tea before getting to work on the project details.
In her 35 years of working real estate for the port, McFearin said she’d never met a person as direct as Paulsen when it came to getting something done while also being full of generosity.
“He’s incredible with real estate and I feel so fortunate that we crossed paths,” McFearin said.
$50 million and its impact
The story of how Paulsen decided to donate $50 million to the local hospital also has its roots in a consequential meeting that happened over 20 years ago.
Rob Walker, currently a board member at the PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center Foundation, first met Paulsen around 2000 while working on his car.
Walker, who owns No. 1 Collision Auto Body Repair as well as other businesses locally including Scotty Browns restaurant, did some work on Paulsen’s new yellow Volkswagen Beetle after it suffered a small fender bender at the Bellwether Hotel.
Paulsen and Walker shared an interest in cars as well as boating, so they kept in touch over the years, which included taking trips out on the local waters.
“He could come off as stand-offish when you first meet him, but once you get to know him you learned he has a heart of gold,” Walker said.
Fast-forward about 20 years. While working on the foundation board, Walker made the expansion of the hospital a big priority.
“This is something that should have happened 15 years ago,” Walker said, noting how much the population has grown and gotten older, but the hospital hadn’t changed much.
When asked by the fundraising committee who might be willing to donate to the project Paulsen came to mind.
“I hate having to ask people for money (for fundraising), but this was important,” Walker said.
Walker said that when he called Paulsen, he was asked how much was needed. Walker said around $500,000 or a $1 million would be a big help, but Paulsen then asked what the goal was, which was $50 million.
“He said he’d think about it,” Walker said.
Walker stepped away at that point, allowing others to give Paulsen more details about the project. When he learned later that Paulsen decided to give $50 million, he was stunned.
“I just couldn’t believe it,” Walker said.
Paulsen confirmed that’s how he got involved. These days Paulsen is heavily involved in philanthropy, with the goal of giving money in ways that have the most impact on people. When he heard about the hospital expansion project, he thought about the thousands of people it would help in the coming years.
The expanded birth and family center really caught Paulsen’s attention. He felt that aspect of the project was exactly where he wanted his money to go.
“That met my criteria,” Paulsen said, adding that he also has a deep appreciation and gratitude for the caregivers and providers, especially with what they have had to deal with during the COVID pandemic.
“I hope this gift affirms their work’s importance and immense value to Bellingham and Whatcom County,” Paulsen said.
The project is currently planned as a six-story, 120,000-square-foot addition near the main entrance area that includes adding beds, a new emergency department and a state-of-the-art family care area. Known as the Peter Paulsen Pavilion, construction is expected to start in the summer of 2023. Another project, a multilevel parking garage with around 400 spaces, is scheduled to get started this summer.
Successful at real estate
Paulsen is now mostly retired and living with his wife Diana in Phoenix.
He was born in Germany and immigrated to the U.S. at 17 to Davenport, Iowa, but didn’t speak English. He went to work as a bricklayer and after two years moved to Moline, Illinois, to start his own masonry company.
He found success building high-end apartment buildings and by age 30 he decided to retire, something he said he would do several times. He moved to California and began building commercial buildings and office complexes.
In 1985, Paulsen founded Commerce Security Bank in Sacramento and served as chairman of the board. A decade later he sold the bank, and made his way to Bellingham.
While the port was marketing the property for a hotel, offices, restaurants and eventually homes, McFearin said it was Paulsen who jump-started Bellwether Way. At the time, there was only one restaurant called The Marina, and the area was known as Thomas Glenn Peninsula.
In 2007 Paulsen sold the Bellwether Hotel and the office building and eventually moved to Phoenix, sort of retiring again. He started what is now the Peter and Diana Paulsen Foundation, which supports many local organizations, including the Boys and Girls Club, Skookum Kids and Whatcom Hospice. He’s also donated to other projects, including the community stage he donated to the Port of Bellingham that’s near Waypoint Park.
He’s also working on a book, an autobiography titled “From Brick and Mortar to Prosperity.” It is expected to be available in March.
McFearin said that she was shocked at how big the gift was to the hospital project, but wasn’t surprised that he would donate part of his fortune in that way.
“It’s part of his way of showing how much he loves Bellingham,” McFearin said.
This story was originally published February 4, 2022 at 12:44 PM.
