By Janice Podsada
Herald Writer
LYNNWOOD — The South Snohomish County Public Facilities District has dropped its $6.2 million bid to purchase a former Cadillac dealership in the heart of Lynnwood.
Under the plan, the showroom would have been converted into a 35,000-square-foot regional conference center.
But a dispute over the purchase price caused public facilities district officials to withdraw their bid this week, said Peter Lieurance, named the district’s new interim executive director this week.
"We offered them $6.2 million — the assessed value, " said Mike Echelbarger, district chairman.
The owner of the Cadillac dealership, Rod Gregory, is a former public facilities district member who stepped down a year ago when it became apparent the district was interested in buying his five-acre property, located at 196 Street SW and 40th Avenue W.
"If we had offered them the $2 million more they wanted, it would have smacked of cronyism because of (Gregory’s) former PFD board status," Echelbarger said.
The dispute over the purchase price was to have been resolved in Snohomish County Superior Court in April.
"Looking at the court date in April gave us pause and made us think about other options," Echelbarger said.
In addition, Lynnwood city officials were in the process of condemning Gregory’s property to make way for the conference center. But on Monday, the Lynnwood City Council passed an ordinance that ended the condemnation procedure.
"The property owners were exploring ways to fight the condemnation," Lieurance said, "which could have involved potential litigation for the city. There’s always a cost to that, and we’d rather put it into a building."
The district’s new plan is to build a 50,000-square-foot conference center from the ground up on the 12-acre Alderwood Village site at 196th Street SW and 36th Avenue SW, which the district purchased in February for $8.5 million.
City revenues were not used to make the purchase. Funds will be obtained through a sales tax rebate from the state, Lynnwood finance director Mike Bailey said.
Construction of a new conference center will not change the budget for the public facilities district project, which remains at $30 million, Echelbarger added.
Construction is expected to begin sometime this year and be completed in fall 2004.
Alderwood Village has 20 business tenants. The city expects to collect about $500,000 a year in rent from those tenants.
"At this point, it appears that one may have to relocate when construction begins," said Echelbarger, although he wouldn’t say which one.
The public facilities district established an office at Alderwood Village this week with Lieurance at the helm. Lieurance resigned his position as assistant to the mayor of Lynnwood Monday to take the job.
The public facilities district was formed by the Lynnwood City Council in 1999 to operate the center. Each year, the district collects about $530,00 from the state in sales tax rebate money that would otherwise remain with the state, finance director Mike Bailey said.
The district collects .033 percent on state sales tax revenues, or 33 cents on every $100. The public facilities district can collect the amount for 25 years.
You can call Herald Writer Janice Podsada at 425-339-3029 or send e-mail to podsada@heraldnet.com.
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