King County’s department of natural resources has an agreement to buy the Mukai barreling plant, and county officials hope the sale will be completed by the beginning of next year.
However, the agreement contains many contingencies, including one that states the barreling plant’s current owner, islander Frank Zellerhoff Jr., will buy 5 acres of industrially zoned land west of Sawbones that is currently occupied by Vashon Forest Stewards (VFS). Christie True, director of King County’s Department of Natural Resources and Parks, said that the agreement indicates the county will buy the barreling plant from Zellerhoff for $435,000 — $50,000 of which still needs to raised by island organization Friends of Mukai. The county will then surplus the 5 acres of land near Sawbones, which Zellerhoff will buy for $500,000.
True said Zellerhoff and VFS will need to “work it out” in terms of whether both can occupy the space and said that the county will assist VFS in finding a new space, if necessary.
Reached Monday, Zellerhoff said he does not want to displace anybody and has already offered to have VFS rent the 2.5 acres it already occupies from him when the sale goes through.
“It’s just if they will be able to pay the rent,” he said.
VFS Director Dave Warren said Monday that the organization will likely have to relocate as the rent will be higher than the current county rate. VFS is meeting with True and other county officials on Nov. 2 to discuss the issue.
“We’re hopeful,” Warren said. “We’re really hopeful something can be worked out.”
Zellerhoff owns a small construction business, and The Beachcomber reported in 2013 that he had been in a dispute with King County over whether he could conduct his stump-grinding business in a residential area on Cemetery Road. He bought the barreling plant for $270,000 in September of 2013, but, at the time, declined to give details to The Beachcomber on his plans for the 5,000-square-foot building. Reached Monday, he said he bought the building for his business as the plant is “technically zoned residential, but was grandfathered in as industrial.”
It currently houses offices and batting cages for community baseball teams, as well as serves as storage space for a variety of tenants.
True said that Zellerhoff needs industrial-zoned land for the business he wants to run and he has been looking for such land since buying the plant.
“He is not allowed to use the barreling plant for this purpose (stump grinding and construction work). As a means of acquiring the barreling plant, we have been trying to find a solution for him,” True said in a Monday email. “We have been talking with him about all or a portion of the surplus piece (near Sawbones) for a couple of years.”
True said that the state has set aside $350,000 for the plant’s purchase and another $35,000 is coming from the county. Once Friends of Mukai raises the remaining $50,000, the VFS land will be surplused and approved by the King County Council. The sale can then close in what she hopes is near Jan. 1, 2017.
Zellerhoff said that he was not planning on selling the building before the county came up with the plan to have him buy the other land.
“I would not have sold it if there wasn’t another place to go,” he said. “If I don’t get that piece of property, they (the county) won’t get this one. It was offered as a trade, basically.”
He said it is “good for the island” to have the plant, but thinks it is “unfortunate” that the county requires both him and VFS to be on industrial-zoned land because “there is not enough of it.”
The announcement of the purchase and sale agreement was made at Sunday’s Mukai open house event where dozens of islanders gathered to tour the historic property and hear about future plans for preservation. The island organization Friends of Mukai gained ownership of the home in April after a years-long court battle and is working with a Tacoma-based historic preservation company to restore the home.
The house and barreling plant reside on two separate parcels, and True said at the event that the agreement in place is a realization of the Friends’ dream to recombine the two parcels.
Friends of Mukai President Lynn Greiner said the county plans to lease the barreling plant to the organization. The Friends will be responsible for renovating the building and preserving it for the future.
“We don’t want it to be a museum,” she said. “We want it to be a working place.”
However, True said that those details still need to be worked out.
Sunday’s event also saw the last piece of fence — leftover from the property’s time under the ownership of Mary Matthews — ceremoniously cut by Friends members and Chamber of Commerce Director Jim Marsh and brought down.
Bernie O’Malley, Vashon’s unofficial mayor, issued a proclamation at the Sunday event, stating that the Mukai House and Garden is open to the public “to benefit all members of the community.”
“This house stands as a symbol of the dream,” he said. “The Mukai family endured many hardships, but with diligence and determined focus, they received respect. All here today stand in gratitude to them.”
