Vashon Allied Arts (VAA) has purchased the McFeed’s property and building for $600,000 and plans to use the space to house its burgeoning educational programs in what VAA executive director Molly Reed calls a “campus setting” that may well include a new building.

The purchase means VAA, the largest arts organization on the Island, owns three contiguous pieces of property — the property that houses its Blue Heron theater, a parcel next door with a modest house on it and now McFeed’s. The new structure, if it comes to fruition, could be placed on either of the two parcels adjacent to the Blue Heron, Reed said.

A campus, said Reed, means “really great facilities utilizing all three parcels including rehabbing the Blue Heron and creating a new structure that would include bigger and better classrooms.”

The money for the McFeed’s purchase came from contributions of about $1 million, Reed said. The fundraising began with a substantial kickoff earlier this year from Islander Kay White, who loves Vashon Island Chorale and who is also an avid gardener and member of the Vashon Garden Club, Reed said.

White’s startup contribution, which VAA board chair Scarlett Foster-Moss characterized as “substantial,” sparked others to give, said Reed.

When asked why she chose VAA as the recipient of her donation, White, according to a VAA press release, replied, “I can’t imagine any group better suited than VAA to nurturing our homegrown arts and at the same time providing all of us with the quality facilities that we will need to serve our arts community far into the future. When I spoke with them about their needs, I felt I could certainly help out.”

The property was sold by husband and wife Steve Brown and Sally Fox, who had owned it for about two years.

“We realized we didn’t know how we wanted to use it,” Brown said, “and we reached the conclusion that we didn’t want to spend the rest of the time developing it.”

Brown is retired from a career in disaster management for the city of Seattle, and Fox is a management consultant. They bought the McFeed’s property after moving to Vashon a little more than two years ago.

Susan Purdom of John L. Scott Real Estate wrote up the papers that brought the deal to fruition. She did it without commission as part of what Scott co-owner Ken Zaglin called a part of the business’s philosophy of helping out with community needs. John L. Scott also took no commission.

Purdom had been the listing agent when Brown and Fox bought the property from Jeri Bain Jordan, who owned the building for 20 years. That particular moment wasn’t right for VAA to get the purchase done, said Purdom, who had approached VAA about it. Then-executive director Jason Everett had just resigned, and Reed had been hired and had not yet started working.

“We had been caretakers for a couple of years for VAA, and when the time was right for them, we were ready,” Brown said. “Calling what we did ‘ownership’ is a little off. We were really caretakers for VAA and the community.”

In another piece of what Brown called “serendipity,” it turns out that White and Brown and Fox share a back fence as neighbors, but Brown and Fox did not know until the purchase that White had been the funding catalyst.

The purchase is part of a bigger plan that will allow VAA to look seriously at what it can do programatically now that it owns three contiguous parcels, Reed said. When Everett was the director, the organization had bought the small house that stands between the Blue Heron and McFeed’s. Purdom also managed that purchase.

The Heron will remain the signature building, according to Reed, who added, “This is such a wonderful location. People know where the Blue Heron is. The Blue Heron will always be the focal point. This building is so loved, and it’s synonymous with VAA.”

But with the additional property, VAA has created the opportunity to meet the needs of a growing program, which could include the demolition of the McFeed’s building and the house in between McFeeds and the Heron to be replaced by a new, possibly large multiple-use structure.

“We have taken these steps in order to meet the growing needs, so there will be some program growth, and also some fine tuning,” said Foster-Moss.

Reed said that nothing at this point is carved in stone.

“We don’t have enough class space, not enough performing space, we could have a better gallery, and we don’t have enough office space,” Reed added.

The next step will be consultation with the community about how to use all three spaces.

Reed said that VAA needs to talk to many stakeholders, including such groups as Vashon Island Chorale, Drama Dock, performers, individual artists, arts educators and students. She added that she would likely be meeting individually with these groups.

“I don’t think we’ll have any problem getting a response,” she said. “People love this organization and will want to give to it.”

The overall aim will be to get a sense of what the community is interested in learning about and viewing. What kinds of performances do people want to see on Vashon? Should there be digital photography classes? Should the pottery programs be expanded? These and other similar questions will be addressed, Foster-Moss said.

VAA plans to keep the McFeed’s store as a tenant on the new property until any possible expansion plans are finalized. Susie xxx, co-owner of McFeed’s, declined to comment on the sale.

The purchase could also help VAA improve its aging facilities.

Now that VAA owns all three parcels, there is a chance it could hook up to the Island’s sewer system to replace the outdated septic system. Reed has allocated $150,000 of the remaining $400,000 to the sewer system project. The rest will be held until the plan is more fully developed.

The Blue Heron building itself needs complete rehabilitation, including electric, plumbing and ventilation systems.

Already under way is the replacement of the roof, for which VAA got approval from King County’s historic preservation office to use a different material than approved 10 years ago. The exterior is also being painted. VAA raised the funds for those projects a year ago during the “Raise the Paddle” part of its auction plus by way of significant gifts.

And the building now has curtain drains around the foundation to avoid a repeat of the foot of water that inundated the basement in storms of December 2007. Funding for the project came from King County 4Culture, previously known as King County Arts Commission.

“It’s only a first step,” said Reed of the McFeed’s purchase, “but it’s a big step.”