City lost a mill, but some will gain a water view

Viki Mirgon wants to see every sunset. Maureen and Ben Hayden are trimming their tall hedge. Peg Potter hopes for a sweeping view -- but would rather have her job.

They all live along the west side of Everett's Grand Avenue, on the few blocks overlooking the Kimberly-Clark plant. Their homes were built decades ago for millworkers.

At the now-closed paper and pulp mill, major demolition is scheduled to start by early August. When the mill goes, views will open up.

An unobstructed Port Gardner vista is more than a soothing sight. Dramatic views that will come with the mill's demise could boost property values for homeowners by tens of thousands of dollars.

"Views make a huge difference," said Barbara Lamoureux, whose Lamoureux Real Estate business specializes in homes in historic north Everett. For larger houses north of the mill, a bay view can add more than $100,000 to values, compared with similar-sized homes nearby lacking a water view, she said.

Still, Lamoureux said, many homes overlooking the mill are small and need renovation. It could be years before anyone knows what the mill site will look like.

Potter, 51, has time to wait. She has been unemployed since April 15, when she lost her Kimberly-Clark job as a clerk. She had worked there six years.

"I'm sure it will be a better view," she said at her Grand Avenue home this week.

Potter is buying the house from her father, Jack Lee. He bought it in the 1950s. She spent the first six months of her life there. For years it was a rental, like many in the neighborhood. In 2010, it was assessed at $219,800.

"I was hoping to retire from Kimberly-Clark," Potter said. "I look straight out at the middle of the mill. My view is obstructed, but that's never been an issue for me. I'd like to see another industry with some jobs. It doesn't have to be a big-ugly like the mill, but we could use some family-wage jobs."

Kimberly-Clark's real estate agent, Kidder Mathews and Binswanger, is seeking a buyer for the 66-acre property.

Herald Writer Debra Smith reported in June that a six-month moratorium placed on new development at the site by the Everett City Council is set to expire Aug. 15. The city asked for public comments, and hired consultants to prepare an economic report on the land's potential use.

Andrea Tucker, whose house overlooks the mill, attended recent Planning Commission meetings where the site was discussed. "I would love to see the view," said Tucker, a real estate agent who is also chairwoman of Everett's Bayside Neighborhood Association.

She lives near the community garden, which she said is on property owned partly by the city and partly by Kimberly-Clark. "The Bayside group has concerns about that," Tucker said.

Tucker believes the city is working to find "the best use of that land for citizens," with jobs being a major goal. Whatever the eventual use, she won't be looking out at a brick wall, as she does now.

Ben and Maureen Hayden bought their house, which includes their home and two other apartments, 15 years ago for $176,000.

"We look right at the Kimberly-Clark sign," Maureen Hayden said. "We planted a laurel hedge and let it grow to the height that it blocked the sign from the deck. Now we've brought the hedge down, knowing the mill is coming down. "You get used to it," she said of the mill view. The couple never expected to have a clear view of the water. Hayden's biggest complaint with the mill wasn't the view or noise, but dust.

She would love to see shops and a promenade on the site, "a walkway like in San Diego." She wouldn't mind if the Navy took over, expanding Naval Station Everett. "I just don't want a huge building going up," Hayden said.

Paul Smith has owned his Grand Avenue home near the mill for four years. "I wouldn't think the city would want it all blocked by industrial development," he said. But he doesn't see industry and recreation as incompatible. "Look at Lake Union, you see examples of both," he said.

"Height restriction is very important to me," Viki Mirgon said. Since 1995, she and her husband Doug Wertz have owned a home on Grand near the mill. "I want to see every sunset, every day," she said.

Mirgon hopes to see commerce on the site and perhaps condominiums. She also wants walking trails at the north end of Everett's waterfront to be connected to a Port of Everett trail south of the Navy base. She has shared those ideas with the city.

Her wish list includes a market, like Seattle's Pike Place Market. "It would be lovely to have a tourist attraction, some waterfront commerce that would generate jobs," she said. "It could be the kind of quirky place that makes Everett so wonderful."

For now, they wait. Better views will come. What else will come is a question mark.

Bob Brand, a Kimberly-Clark spokesman, said Thursday that work has started to prepare for demolition. "Major structural demolition will start by the end of this month or early August," he said. There's a possibility the warehouse on the side of the mill would be saved if a buyer wants it, he said. "But our plan right now is to demolish the mill by next March," Brand said.

Tucker is ready. "Who wouldn't want that water view?" she said. "Actually, I'd love to do the implosion myself."

Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460, muhlstein@heraldnet.com.