The Old Fuller Store’s new owner is also the founder and owner of Seattle-based pizzerias and coffee shops, but he says he has no plans to expand either business to the island.
King County Assessor’s Office records show the building was sold for $750,000 in late September to McConnell Real Estate, LLC, a corporation with the same address on East Pike Street as the flagship store for a coffee shop called Caffe Vita. The founder and owner of the independent chain of coffee shops is Michael McConnell, a Seattle-raised businessman who started the cafe 20 years ago. The Caffe Vita website says that the business is focused on the “Farm Direct movement,” meaning the company aims to get coffee beans from growers that it develops “long-term, mutually fruitful relationships with.” McConnell’s original Cafe Vita on East Pike Street is one of 11 locations throughout Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles and New York City.
McConnell branched out in 2004, opening Via Tribunali pizzeria in an old auto shop on East Pike Street, which specializes in Southern Italian Neapolitan pizza. McConnell has since opened three more of the pizzerias in Seattle.
Regardless of the successes of both of his businesses, McConnell told The Beachcomber last week that he has “no set plans” for the historic building and is not planning on bringing either of his businesses to Vashon.
“With certainty, we are not opening a Caffe Vita or Via Tribunali,” McConnell said. “We feel fortunate to merely look after it for the next generation.”
The building currently houses Francisco’s Barbershop and the antique store Treasure Island. Barbershop owner Francisco Marinez said last week that he had not heard anything besides the fact that the building had sold. Treasure Island owner Marci Christopher could not be reached for comment.
The 131-year-old building is Vashon’s most historic commercial building. Sitting at the intersection of Vashon Highway and Cemetery Road, it was put up for sale in late 2013, months after the structure was deemed a historical landmark by King County’s Landmarks Commission.
Roy McMakin and Mike Jacobs, the building’s former owners, took it upon themselves to ensure the building got the historical recognition it deserved. They nominated it for landmark status in March 2013.
“I wanted to preserve the historical nature of the building,” McMakin said last week. “The entire interior and the black walnut trees on the property are historically registered. We got the strongest historical preservation because we felt since we were lucky enough to own it, we had the responsibility to do everything we could to preserve it.”
With the historical preservation done, he said that he and Jacobs decided to sell it because their plans to stay on the island changed, and the new Vashon Allied Arts (VAA) performing arts center was set to go across the street. McMakin said that he was “never very happy” with the new center and felt it ruined the intersection’s historical value.
“That intersection was supposed to be historically protected,” McMakin said. “It’s the only existing 19th-century intersection in the county.VAA was not doing right by that intersection. That was part of (the reason we decided to sell).”
McMakin said that after the space was put up for sale, there were “a number of people” looking at it and its $750,000 price tag. He said McConnell and his wife loved the building and had no problem with the necessary preservation standards.
Real estate records show McConnell and his wife, Elizabeth Weber-McConnell, bought a $1.5 million home on Glen Acres Road in August, one month before buying the historic building. McMakin said that the McConnells are planning “to kind of live part-time on Vashon,” and that he is happy with the sale.
“We priced it high because it’s such a special thing, and the people who bought it needed to be able to take care of it. It’s a fine antique,” McMakin said.
The McConnells are the fifth owners in the building’s long history.
When asked what brought him to Vashon, McConnell said simply, “Vashon makes me happy.”
