With permit in hand, a Seattle developer plans to break ground on a 16-unit vacation retreat behind Vashon Village this month.
Scott Shapiro, managing director of Eagle Rock Ventures, said the real estate and development firm received its construction permit for the project in late December, nearly two years after it applied. It now plans to break ground on the project, called The Lodges on Vashon, in the next couple of weeks.
“We’re excited about it,” Shapiro said last week. “We’re excited to be open and fill a much needed resource on the island.”
The Lodges on Vashon will include 16 free-standing units designed by Eagle Rock and prefabricated by a company in Idaho. The structures will come to the island via ferry about six weeks after work at the site begins.
“We designed these lodges specifically for the site,” Shapiro said.
A hotel at the large lot behind Vashon Village was first proposed several years ago, when former owner Dan McClary announced plans to build a 24-room inn there. However, McClary became entrenched in a disagreement with Water District 19 over water shares at the property. After a 33-month legal battle, the two sides settled in 2009, allowing McClary to build a 16-room inn that incorporates water-saving measures. However McClary never built the inn, and he eventually sold the property, as well as Vashon Village, to Shapiro.
In early 2014, Water District 19 made it possible for Eagle Rock to build a hotel with 16 separate units instead of one main building when it passed a policy allowing new developments providing temporary lodging to split water shares among multiple structures.
Eagle Rock originally planned to begin the project much sooner, and at one point planned to open the lodges last summer. However, working with the water district and going through the permitting process took longer than the firm had hoped, he said.
King County’s Department of Permitting and Environmental Review (DPER) issued the permit on Dec. 26, and Eagle Rock picked it up late last month. Shapiro said he’s now waiting on one minor permit he expects will be issued this week. Work at the site will likely start soon, he said, and Eagle Rock hopes to have the lodges open by Memorial Day.
