Three dilapidated downtown buildings stand to fall next month.
City Council members on Monday awarded the demolition contract for the Marvel and Crites Huff buildings to PCI Democon at a total contract cost of $166,352.
The Marvel Building is located on the southwest corner of West Main and South Division Street, and the Crites Huff building is one block south of it on the southwest corner of 1st Street Southwest and South Division. Those buildings will fall to allow South Division to be widened for the Promenade Project.
But Council members also authorized an agreement between the City and the Business Bank of Skagit County that will clear the way for the bank to tear down its holding, the Charlie Wong building.
The mechanism is found in a 1924 warranty deed between the owner of Marvel (now the City) and the owner of Charlie Wong. It says that if the owner of Marvel tears it down, the owner will be responsible for rebuilding the common wall with the Charlie Wong building. In lieu of rebuilding that wall, the City has agreed to contribute $30,000 to the Business Bank for demolition.
Councilwoman Nancy Backus said that to rebuild the common wall at today’s building standards would be a lot more pricey than $30,000.
“By negotiating a great deal … we are able to save a lot of money and have the benefit of the demolitions of the Charlie Wong building owned by the bank at the same time,” said Backus, praising Human Resources director Brenda Heineman and staff members for negotiating the deal.
The Business Bank of Skagit County may choose to go with the City’s contractor or select its own.
Councilmember Virginia Haugen tried to remove the Marvel demolition from the Council’s consent agenda.
“I believe we paid $461,000 for this building,” Haugen said. “I was against paying any amount of money for a building we don’t need, and I am opposed to demolishing it because of the cost … I think our money can be better spent on other things, like homelessness.”
Mayor Pete Lewis noted that the demolition money comes from a grant dedicated to downtown projects and can’t be spent on anything else.
Haugen was not finished.
“We have a downtown revitalization project that doesn’t seem to be working very well,” Haugen said. “People downtown complain about homelessness and homeless people on city-owned parking lots. … We’re spending a lot of money to tear down buildings, and we don’t have anyone I know of that is going to rebuild anything over there.”
Given the vacant Cavanaugh block to the East, there won’t be much left South of City Hall after the demolitions. Councilman Rich Wagner sees the benefits to this.
“That’s what attracts developers. They want to see how it’s going to look. They can visualize a project a lot better than they would having to blank out Charlie Wong.” Those are such derelict buildings.”