PORT ANGELES — Clallam Transit’s no-bid selection of Jack Heckman to manage parking at The Gateway transit center was linked to the agency’s purchase of Heckman’s property for the transit center, Clallam Transit Manager Terry Weed said last week.
Clallam Transit bought Heckman’s parking lot for $420,000 in 2006 to build the $14.7 million facility.
Under an interim agreement, Clallam Transit now pays him $1,016 a month to manage and maintain the new parking lots, as well as the west parking garage, and will soon pay him more.
He, Clallam Transit and the city of Port Angeles are negotiating an management agreement that will include the east garage — the second parking garage at the site, Weed said.
The 15-year management agreement between Heckman and Clallam Transit, now three years old, “was an implied part” of the purchase, Weed said.
Heckman agreed with Weed’s characterization.
The property “was going to stay in my family forever,” Heckman said, adding his father, Jim, handed it down to him and he had planned to give it to his own son.
“It was a good, paid-for piece of property. We had to look at the overall situation and purchase price. Fifteen years seem reasonable, based on the purchase price.
“We could have tried to get a lot more money based on the business, but we wanted to get along with the situation and put together something for the good of the community.”
10 percent to city
Heckman said 10 percent of his gross revenue goes to the city of Port Angeles under a new ordinance that covers city parking lots, and he incurs expenses for maintaining and staffing those lots.
Heckman is paid with revenue from The Gateway transit center parking proceeds that he collects as owner of Heckman Motors.
He also earns revenue from 44 parking spaces for maximum 24-hour calendar-day parking that he manages separate from Clallam Transit that is adjacent to the transit center between Front Street and Railroad Avenue.
Weed said Clallam Transit appraised Heckman’s parking lot property, but the eventual purchase was about more than land.
The agency had to determine the value of Heckman’s parking lot business as well, Weed said.
Heckman said last week the business grossed about $125,000 annually.
‘Volatile arena’
When property is linked with a business, “it’s a volatile arena to determine value,” Weed said.
“It was determined that it was in the best interest of Heckman and Clallam Transit to essentially continue to allow Heckman to continue the business on the property rather than go to court and have a court establish what the value was.”
“It was acknowledged that if he were allowed to continue operating his business, it was a better way to keep that going rather than pay a potentially higher price for the property,” Weed added.
“We were reasonably able to contain the price of the property if we allowed him to continue to operate on that piece of property as he had in the past — in other words, maintain his business.”
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Staff writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladaily news.com.
