Everett’s Historic Collins Building to remain standing for now

Published 11:07 pm Friday, July 24, 2009

A former casket factory will stand a little longer on Everett’s waterfront, due to a temporary court-ordered reprieve.

A Snohomish County Superior Court judge issued a temporary injunction Friday to prohibit the Port of Everett from dismantling the Collins Building, a 75-year-old structure on Marine View Drive.

The injunction temporarily keeps the port from dismantling the building while activists for historic preservation seek dispute resolution with the port. The court order was sought by a group called the Collins Building Coalition, Historic Everett, and activists Valerie Steel and David Mascarenas.

The activists say they’d like to see the building revitalized to host businesses and other tourist attractions.

“It would be a gathering place — a stop-and-chat place,” said Steel.

The large red building with wide lines of white-trimmed warehouse windows is on port property near Port Gardner Bay. That land was once a swampy tideland, so the structure was built pierlike on deep pilings.

The Collins Building was placed on state and national historic registers as the lone remaining example of the near-amphibious buildings that once made up Everett’s waterfront district.

Port officials say repairs and updates to make the building functional would be too costly and that activists are clouding legal issues with unfair assertions. The building wouldn’t be subject to a wrecking ball, but deconstructed in a way that would allow parts to be reused or collected.

Port attorney Brad Cattle said activists have a right to appeal the port’s plans and that the port is committed to seeing the legal process through.

“The port does not deserve the black hat the plaintiffs would like to put on the port,” Cattle told Superior Court Judge Larry McKeeman Friday.

Port officials struck an agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and several historical groups to build a new marina near 12th Street, and part of that deal required the port to seek a new use for the Collins Building.

But attempts to secure funding to update the building for commercial use fell flat, and the Corps gave the port a green light take the building down.

The Corps has questioned the port’s construction estimates in light of the economic downturn, along with whether the port’s recently acquired authority to operate tourism facilities might cast new light on redevelopment funding.

Activists say they’ll petition national authorities to keep the building intact.

“We anticipate we’ll be going to the Federal Advisory Council on Historic Preservation,” Steel said.

Steel and other activists also filed a lawsuit against the city of Everett for issuing a demolition permit to the port. The suit alleges that by allowing demolition, the city did not exercise due diligence in following its own preservation guidelines.

Read Amy Rolph’s small-business blog at cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/heraldnet/TheStorefront. Contact her at 425-339-3029 or arolph@heraldnet.com.