EVERETT – Bastyr University is growing, but apparently not in the direction of Snohomish County anytime soon.
The Kenmore-based college, which teaches natural medicine, announced Tuesday that it will pay $12 million for the 51-acre campus it has been leasing from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle since 1995.
A spokeswoman for Bastyr also said Tuesday that the college has indefinitely postponed talk of expanding to Everett, which at one time discussed a possible branch campus on the Snohomish River.
“I certainly wouldn’t want to say it’s completely out of the question, but in all honestly, it really is not on our front burner right now,” Bastyr spokeswoman Kathleen Warren said.
If Bastyr pulled out, “that would surprise us,” said Larry Crawford, chief administrator for Everett.
Though the college is under new leadership and made a big move this week to purchase its home campus, as far as Crawford is concerned, nothing has changed.
“We continue to believe that at some point they’re going to end up in Everett in some fashion,” Crawford said. “All the reasons they were interested previously are still there, and probably even more reasons.”
It was almost two years ago that Everett city leaders tapped Bastyr, hoping the college would play a role in the redevelopment of about 200 acres of neglected land on the riverfront
They hoped the college, with its reputation for environmental stewardship and its draw among young people, would help transform the former landfill and pulp mill site into a vibrant, urban village with a focus on health and wellness.
Though the project was never a done deal, question marks started to arise more than a year ago when then-Bastyr President Thomas Shepherd took a job on the East Coast and an interim president took over.
Earlier this year, the idea of a branch campus was dealt another blow by the departure of Sandi Cutler, Bastyr’s vice president for institutional planning and public affairs, who had championed the Everett expansion.
Daniel Church, the college’s new president, started his term in September. Church urged the college to focus on its current educational programs and students before looking at big-ticket, large-scale decisions.
“I would say he has been pretty internally focused, and sometime probably in the next few months will start to turn his attention to other things so we can decide, ‘Should we continue to have these discussions with Everett?’” Bastyr spokeswoman Warren said.
While those conversations haven’t taken place at the college under the new president, there’s also been a lull in dialogue with the city.
“I don’t even know when the last time there was contact between the city of Everett and Bastyr,” Warren said.
Dene Oliver, whose San Diego-based firm OliverMc- Millan is handling the riverfront development, said Bastyr hasn’t returned phone calls since Cutler left the school for a job in California.
“We had several early meetings with Bastyr to explore with them, but quite frankly have placed call after call to them,” Oliver said.
There’s still time for Bastyr to be a major tenant in the Oliver-McMillan development, but even without the school, Oliver said plans for Everett’s riverfront will move forward.
That frustrates some Lowell residents, who didn’t warm to the city’s development plans until Bastyr showed interest in joining the riverfront roster.
Elaine Wilson, treasurer of the Lowell Civic Association, said she’d known for some time that Bastyr wasn’t likely to expand to Everett. Neighbors have asked city planners whether the rumor was true, but have never gotten a straight answer, she said.
“We wanted Bastyr very badly in our neighborhood,” she said. “We felt that it would be a really good fit, because they’re environmentally responsible.”
Gail Chism, vice president of the Lowell Civic Association, said a city planner recently told the Council of Neighborhoods that Bastyr was not likely to expand to Everett.
“And I had heard that even before that,” Chism said. “I think with the change in leadership at Bastyr, that was a sign.”
If the land must be developed, Bastyr would have made the best of the circumstances, Chism said.
Bastyr’s Warren said officials at the school definitely see the benefit of expanding to Everett and Snohomish County. There is an increasing demand for both education in natural medicine and those seeking such treatment, she said.
“It was encouraging to know that the community opened its arms to us,” Warren said.
Reporter Jennifer Warnick: 425-339-3429 or jwarnick@ heraldnet.com.
Reporter Krista J. Kapralos: 425-339-3422 or kkapralos@ heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
