PORT ANGELES — A landmark department store building downtown — empty for 1 ½ years — is for sale at a reduced price, a real estate broker confirmed Monday.
Coldwell Banker Uptown Realty, representing owner K.O. Erickson Trust, has lowered the asking price for the former Gottschalks building at the corner of First and Oak streets from $1.5 million to $950,000.
A group of local business leaders still wants to lease the building and open a locally owned department store.
The interim group is working with the Erickson Trust, which has been looking for a tenant since bankrupt Gottschalks closed the department store in May 2009.
The building, built in the 1940, had been home to Peoples and Lamonts Apparel department stores before California-based Gottschalks acquired Lamonts in 2000.
The nonprofit Erickson Trust formed the interim group in January 2010.
“We are only involved in it because were are civic people, if you will,” said Coldwell Banker Uptown Realty co-owner Jerry Nichols, a member of the group.
The group includes Nichols and Dan Gase of Coldwell Banker, Kaj Ahlburg, Ted Simpson, Bill Hermann, and Roy and Mary Gotham.
Nichols said the group needs to hire a general manager and raise between $1.5 million and $2 million from investors to open a new retail store.
“It would be nice if the community had an anchor in that building for the downtown commercial area,” Nichols said, adding that it would take at least a year to stock and open a new store.
“That’s not an easy thing to organize.”
The assessed value of the building at 200 W. First St. is $1,408,220, Clallam County Chief Deputy Assessor Michael Hopf said. The assessed value of the parking lot to the south is $218,993.
The $950,000 asking price covers the 34,665-square-foot building and its 65-space parking lot, Nichols said.
Nichols said the price was lowered in hopes of generating more interest in the property.
The interim board, which does not have an official name, held a meeting Monday night to discuss the property.
“They’re still running their numbers and they’re still putting together their due diligence,” said Port Angeles City Manager Kent Myers, who is a member of the K.O. Erickson Trust board.
Although an interested buyer has yet to step forward, Myers said he is “still optimistic that we can do something within the next 12 to 18 months.”
Myers said the city’s waterfront improvement plans will help market of the property. He noted that the downtown area has seen a net gain of 14 businesses in the past year.
Nichols said the building has been listed for sale since it became vacant.
The original plan was to sell the two-story building to another retail chain like a Macy’s or a J.C. Penney Co.
“Nobody was interested in putting a store there,” Nichols said.
“With this group, the idea is to make a financial plan and a business plan that looks logical.”
After finishing the plans, the group will hire a general manager and seek funding from local investors to finance a retail store that would look “very much like Gottschalks,” Nichols said.
“If Gottschalks Port Angeles is to materialize, then we are a tenant for the building,” he said.
As an incentive, Erickson Trust has offered the first six months rent to the interim group.
“Erickson Trust has been very cooperative,” Nichols said.
Some of the challenges will be finding a buyer’s group and local expertise for niche products such as high-end women’s cosmetics, Nichols said.
“We haven’t been able to find [a buyer’s group],” he said.
“That’s one reason why it’s taking so long.”
Gottschalks closed its doors after the Fresno, Calif.-based retail chain filed for bankruptcy in January 2009.
The Erickson Trust, city officials and the interim Gottschalks group met with Connie Lipsker, a Gonzaga University professor who teaches retail management, about participating in a city-funded retail market analysis.
“Gottschalks appears to have made money in this store,” Nichols said.
“However, what we can’t always get is how much support they got from their corporate office.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
