Former fire station in Stanwood on the market

STANWOOD — Here’s your chance to own a former fire station.

Sorry, the fire pole is long gone.

Cotton Pickins’ Quilts &Bernina renovated the station into a commercial building. The building now bares little resemblance to its fire house days.

“After we got it done, several of the old volunteer firemen stopped by and they were amazed at the transformation,” said Kathy Blank, Cotton Pickins’ owner.

The 6,089-square-foot building at 8718 270th St. NW is on the market for $1.399 million.

Blank has owned Cotton Pickins’ for 15 years and the store has been popular. American Patchwork and Quilting named the store one of the top 10 quilt stores nine years ago.

“We have a huge customer base,” Blank said. “It’s not only here, we have people drive up from Seattle and people come down from Canada.

In 2007, Blank purchased the former fire station, which was rundown and hadn’t been used as a fire station for years. She spent a year renovating the building and bringing it up to code. She considered the building, which is behind Rite Aid, to be a diamond in the rough. Van Sickle Enterprises on Camano Island did the work.

The fire pole went away and a set of sirens on top of the old building were donated to the fire district. Beams in the old building were converted into a pergola where she keeps her cash register.

Blanks thinks its one of the nicest buildings in Stanwood.

She was able to make it through the recession with the new building. But she said that her store doesn’t need all of the space that it’s using.

She also found owning a commercial property to be onerous. She discovered a bit of that when renovating the building and learning that she needed to install flood barriers in the doors and windows despite the building being across Highway 532 from the Stillaguamish River.

Now she’s looking to sell the property and either remain in part of the building or move out all together. The commercial building can easily be divided into three separate commercial spaces.

“I’d just as soon be a happy little renter rather than dealing with the stress of owning a building,” Blank said.