PORT ANGELES — The apparent new owner of the derelict property at 204 E. Front St., is gathering information about Port Angeles’ downtown before deciding what the renovated building will look like and what it will house, according to city officials.
City Attorney Bill Bloor said the aim is to create a “gateway” structure for the downtown.
The person he has spoken with said he wants to “put in what is going to be the best for the community,” Bloor said.
“He wants to be a contributing member of the community,” Bloor added, declining to identify the owner.
A warranty deed filed a week ago with the Clallam County Auditor’s Office was listed on Monday as in progress for the property, which was condemned by the Port Angeles City County on April 5 after years of efforts to work with then-owner, David Gladwin.
Gladwin, who is listed as living in Port Angeles, has sold the property to SIG Washington Holdings Inc., a for-profit company incorporated on April 11 of this year. It is based in Surrey, B.C., and its agent is a law office in Bellingham.
The sale had not been finalized as of Monday, but the new owner had taken steps already to secure the building from trespassers.
Marc Abshire, executive director of the Port Angeles Chamber of Commerce, said he spoke to a man named Aman Sangha of Bellingham last week about development in Port Angeles’ downtown core.
The two plan to meet soon so that Abshire can brief him on “the Elevate PA 2026 project for the future of downtown business district so he can understand what the vision is for downtown,” the chamber director said Monday.
He thinks the interest is a harbinger of things to come; empty or derelict buildings will be seen by investors as opportunities.
“This is one of many actions like this that are going to be happening over next two, three, four years,” Abshire said.
“We have other properties in need of a similar kind of love.”
None of the principals in the transaction could be reached for comment.
The brick building near the intersection of Front and Lincoln as people enter the city from the east has been described as a blight on the neighborhood for more than a decade.
“This has been an issue for the city for at least 11 years,” Bloor told the city council on April 5.
In 2011, city officials started sending notices to Gladwin notifying him of nuisance issues with the building. He would “fix the building up just enough to be in compliance and then after a while it would revert back to the same nuisance issues,” he added then.
After a fire was started in the building by a homeless person trying to stay warm on March 26, fire fighters called by the people sheltering int he abandoned structure to extinguish the blaze reported drug paraphernalia and other trash inside.
On April 5, the council unanimously condemned the building and began the process of taking over possession of it.
It’s first aim was to seal the building so that it was no longer a danger.
The new owner has sealed the building and placed no trespassing signs on it, Bloor said.
The owner also is working with the police, authorizing them to arrest or remove anyone in the building, Bloor said.
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Executive Editor Leah Leach can be reached at 360-417-3530 or at lleach@peninsuladailynews.com.
