PORT TOWNSEND — A Bellevue-based chain of 10 midsize hotels has purchased about an acre of land at Indian Point for a little more than $1 million, but the owner of Silver Cloud Inns and Hotels said he has no plans for developing it now.
“We’re looking into the possibility of doing something there. I bought it for kind of a longer term investment,” Jim Weymouth said of the waterfront site just south of the Tide Inn on the southern link of Water Street, formerly used as state ferry overflow parking.
Development could include a hotel and restaurant or condominiums.
“I think that area could take some rooms,” Weymouth said, but he stopped short of speculating how many rooms could be built there.
Weymouth, who has worked in the lodging industry for 30 years, said given the existing condominium glut in Port Townsend, it was less likely condos would be developed.
The sale comes after Port Townsend developers Bill Wolcott and Vern Garrison proposed an extravagant, urban, green-built retail and condo project two years ago, which never came to fruition after all city permits were secured.
The former project planned 26 condominiums and14,000 square feet of commercial space, with condos priced from $400,000 to $1.2 million.
The former project proposed public beach access, pocket parks, parking and on-site drainage retention.
With the financial help of Shell Oil Co., the Indian Point site, a former petroleum storage depot, was cleaned of waste oil that had seeped as deep as 14 feet and spread over much of the property.
The contaminated soil was taken away by the truckload and properly disposed of in Everett.
Weymouth said he was visiting Port Townsend last fall and learned more about the site.
“We look all over. We’re always looking” for building sites, he said.
Silver Cloud has hotels in Seattle, Bellevue, Redmond, Mukilteo, Tacoma and Portland.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
