By EMMA AMIAD

By now most people have heard the buzz about the K2 building. The article and editorial in last week’s Beachcomber covered some of the particulars, but I’d like to take this opportunity to talk a bit about my involvement and, I suppose you could say, my own dream for this venture.

We’ve known for a long time that K2 was leaving the Island, and there was speculation about the property. Would they sell it, keep part of it for research, rent it out or what? Last spring it became clear that they would sell their properties here.

For weeks as I drove past the facility every day, I kept remembering the countless community meetings I’ve attended for 20 years where people expressed their hopes that we could one day have a real community center. I recalled dozens of committees I’ve served on that studied the reuse of many other sites for housing, recreation, arts, theater, small start-up businesses, child centers, senior services, places for teenagers and dozens of other uses.

I couldn’t help but say to myself, “Well, duh! How hard is it to connect the dots here?” On one hand, close to 180,000 square feet of available space, centrally located near town and the schools, waiting for something to happen to it. On the other hand, a list of uses that the community has made a dozen times over that could fill that space.

Art Wahl, the broker representing K2, appeared before the Vashon-Maury Island Community Council in early spring suggesting that K2 Sports would wait a few weeks before putting it on the market to give the community time to put something together. Through the community council’s land use and natural resources committee, I took on the task of contacting businesses and nonprofits on the Island to discuss their needs and their ability to participate in a community-wide effort to create a real community center and business park.

I went to meetings, talked for hours on the phone, met with directors and board members and spoke before community groups. Folks were excited about the possibilities but got a little fainthearted when we talked about the big question: Where’s the money?

I met with a few major donors on the Island who were supportive, but none of these people had the time or expertise to pull off a multi-million dollar project, regardless of how much it was needed or wanted by the community.

Finally, I went back the community council to make my report, and it boiled down to this: Everyone wants it to happen, but no one can write the check. I was done. I had given it my best shot and had to simply live with the feeling that I had failed to do whatever it would take to get this great idea growing.

Then Dick Sontgerath dropped by my office. He was intrigued. We talked a long time about what the K2 property could be. I shared with him my experiences with the endless meetings and committees I had attended over the years where a need for this very thing was discussed.

He said a simple thing: “I think I can do this.” We began meeting regularly, and he started to build a team of knowledgeable professionals to help. To start he brought in Islanders Keith Putnam and Truman O’Brien, who each added depth and knowledge to the project. He named it K2 Commons, and we were off and running.

I went back to some of those organizations I had spoken to before and asked, “Are you still interested?” Most said “yes.” Like Dick, I began to see seniors teaching chess to teenagers, high school students helping out at the child care center and working with the needs of seniors. I saw kids playing basketball, and I could hear the thwack of the tennis balls against gleaming wood floors.

I could visualize some of our local small businesses, many of them working out of someone’s house right now, expanding their operations into the K2 Commons. I saw a school, a cafeteria, a ceramics studio, yoga classes, a workout facility, medical offices, counseling offices, the food bank and Granny’s Attic. And I could see a beautiful new library!

What an opportunity! Not just for now, but for our future. This could be a facility that serves our needs not just today but for generations to come. At one of my public meetings, an older gentleman asked me, “Why should I support such a thing at my age?” My answer was another question, “Do you have grandchildren?” He just smiled and that was the end of his questions.

This will take a lot of work. Dick and the others on his team have the expertise to do it. I will do what I can to help it along. In a world filled with so much darkness, we all need to reach for the light. There’s a lot of bright light on K2 Commons.

— Emma Amiad is a real estate agent on Vashon who is working with Richard Sontgerath on the K2 project.