Wenatchee waterfront property owners waiting and watching
Posted on 03. Feb, 2010 by nevonnemcdaniels in Real Estate/Construction
by Nevonne McDaniels
WENATCHEE — If condos are out, Bob Parlette is looking for other ideas for the 4.5 acres of Wenatchee waterfront property he owns across from the Town Toyota Center.
Randy Zielinski planned to build condominiums on the property and completed Riverwalk’s first phase before the economy took a nose dive in 2008. His plans for future phases on the neighboring properties, including Parlette’s, are now on hold.
“I doubt anything is going to happen in 2010. Maybe 2011,” Zielinski said. “It all depends on financing, which is hard to get. We’re sitting here trying to figure out what is going to shake out in the market. Maybe something with commercial if that looks stronger. Right now, we’re licking our wounds.”
That leaves Parlette looking at other options.
“We need to get something going down there,” he said, especially now that Riverside Drive connecting Walla Walla Avenue to Worthen Street has been completed.
Parlette’s property includes the 5,000-square-foot former Brett and Son building and the lot next to it at 1313 Walla Walla Ave. Both border Walla Walla Point Park.
“It would be ideal for a hotel. We have some new hotels going in, but there’s still room for that, right across from the event center,” he said, or a food court or a recreation-related business, perhaps renting bicycles, canoes and kayaks, given its proximity to the park.
Parlette isn’t the only property owner in the area looking at more open space than they expected as the city’s waterfront development plans took shape in 2004.
Tim Cetto owns a 1.25-acre parcel just south of the completed Riverwalk Condos. It is now dotted with “for sale” signs, as is the former trailer park at Ninth Street owned by Kamkon Development LLC. Plans for that 12.5-acre included a farmers market, condos and commercial space.
Further south, Ken Blodgett’s 4.7-acre lot, which sits between the new Riverside Drive and Piere Street is cleared, with its own crop of “for sale” signs. Blodgett initially had plans for condos there.
But not all the waterfront area development plans are dead in the water. John McQuaig announced plans for The Riverside Landing, a total of five new buildings, a mix of commercial and residential, with 167,000 square feet of space in all.
The first phase, a $6 million, 25,000-square-foot building which will be located next to the old ice arena, is on track to be built this year, McQuaig said. It will be the anchor for future projects at the site and feature retail and office space on the first floor, office space on the second and third floors and the top floor as condominium units.
“I am working on a final tenant for a floor and the office portion will be full,” McQuaig said in December. “I have talked to some restaurant developers who have interest in the main floor space. Retail shops would fit in that location as well.”
And, further south, the Pybus Public Market project is being studied. The proposal includes a public market, commercial and residential development in the former Morse Steel property at the foot of Orondo Street, with the potential for a hotel and restaurant in the area as well.
Bellingham developer Ted Mischaikov of M:KOV Inc. has presented the public market portion of the project as a public/private partnership. The Port of Chelan County ordered a feasibility study in December. No deals have yet been inked and no dirt is moving.
Parlette hopes something will shake loose soon.
“I want to start beating the drums to get some interest here,” he said. “It’s going to take stepping off the curb. The city put money into the road and the event center, and now we have all these failed projects sitting there.”
Alan Beidler of Sage Real Estate in Wenatchee said the lack of activity along the waterfront is not necessarily because developers don’t want to move forward.
“It’s just a tight time economically for the nation as a whole. It’s not really a good time to seek bank financing on projects. They’re just not cooperative right now. They are demanding more cash down on transactions now than before. They’re just not interested.”
But that could change.
“We’ll see where the farmers market idea goes. That would provide some impetus to the rest of the development when that hits the street,” he said.
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