When news hit in late August that Lobsang Dargey and his real estate development company, Path America, were under SEC investigation for misappropriating investor’s funds, it punched many Everett area business leaders in the gut.
His Potala Place and Farmer’s Market project, which includes a whopping 220 apartment units above the market, was nearing completion right in the downtown core just as the SEC made its move.
Outside developers stand poised to bring other privately funded opportunities to Everett, so guts were stirred about whether failure of this project could spook them away. Everett has never really experienced the powerful effect of the private sector playing ball in its downtown sandbox. This, finally, might be its big opportunity if Dargey is successful.
The SEC filed a civil suit against the privately held company and Dargey, its CEO, in U.S. District Court in Seattle. According to the suit, Dargey misused funds raised from foreign investors, including making withdrawals from casinos in Las Vegas and to purchase a home in Bellevue. Dargey denies any wrongdoing.
The SEC asked the court to freeze the company’s and Dargey’s assets. That has not stopped construction in downtown Everett at Potala Place and Farmers’ Market, though. It was nearly completed when the SEC filed. Some apartment units are being filled, but the opening date and details behind the Farmers’ Market are sketchy still.
Most of the development in Everett’s downtown since the 1970s, when the Everett Mall opened and retail shopping moved out of its core, has been through locals and the public sector, leaving gaps in places that others could fill if they saw opportunity.
A tide-rises-all-ships opportunity is what being attractive to outside developers means to Everett, lightening the load on the public sector, diversifying the community and supporting local businesses currently struggling to get by. That’s why lots of eyes have been focused on Dargey and his success. If all involved in his project from investor, to lender, to the public and the new residents served by the apartments have a good experience, the gates will open on Everett because price points, compared to Bellevue and Seattle, are a bargain still.
What Everett and its citizens, business leaders and elected officials need to do is look past the salacious story around Dargey himself and embrace the reality that it has a new 220-unit apartment project opening here one way or another. Supporting it and other new apartment and hotel developments in its core is key to keeping the Downtown Renaissance momentum alive and transforming the cities’ core forever. Failure of Potala Farmer’s Market and the 220 units above it is a failure for Everett, not just Dargey.
Tom Hoban is CEO of The Coast Group of Companies. Contact him at 425-339-3638 or tomhoban@coastmgt.com or visit www.coastmgt.com. Twitter: @Tom_P_Hoban.
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