Port of Olympia OKs sale of Cleanwater Center buildings

The Port of Olympia Commission authorized the sale of two Cleanwater Center buildings to real estate firm Launch Negotiations, LLC, on Monday, February 26.

The Port's Real Estate Senior Manager Clarita Mattox told the commission that the two 6,000-square-foot buildings will be sold for $40,000 each. The deal closed on February 27.

Launch Negotiations, LLC "will repurpose the buildings for commercial and retail activities, and we're looking forward to more business development Cleanwater Center," Mattox told The JOLT. 

The buildings involved in this sale are shown as 206 and 210 in the image accompanying this story. 

The port will continue to own the land, so the commission also approved a long-term agreement with the company.

The lease agreement runs for an initial length of 30 years, ending in February 2054 with an option to continue the lease for 20 years. The monthly lease rate is $2,500, increasing two percent yearly. The property will also be reappraised in the 15th year of the lease.

The properties may be used for office, retail, and commercial services except for uses that already exist in the Cleanwater Center, according to the agreement.

Only one building remains available

With the two buildings sold, only the largest one remains available in the nine-building Cleanwater Center. This building is shown as 300 in the image accompanying this story. 

Documents prepared for the meeting noted that Tumwater, where Cleanwater Center is located, requires the access road near that building to be converted to a roadway before the building can be repurposed.

Mattox said that widening the road conflicts with the port’s ongoing habitat conservation plan.

“Because of the habitat conservation plan, to widen [the road], we're gonna get into a parcel directly west of this that is affected by gophers, so we can’t do anything,” Mattox said.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must first approve the habitat conservation plan before developments are approved in areas where endangered species occur.