Historic Timeline |
- October 1910: Northern Pacific Depot opens for passengers,
freight and mail. Built by NP Architects Reed & Stem, the $52,000 brick
and sandstone building with a footprint of 9800 square feet represents
the valley’s historic character, commerce and identity.
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- October 1981: Amtrak abandons passenger service through
Ellensburg; railroad mergers and acquisitions over the years leave the
fate of the Depot in the hands of the consolidated Burlington Northern
Santa Fe (BNSF) Railroad.
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- August/September 1985: BNSF decides to sell the
Depot building but keep the land underneath the structure.
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- August 13, 1991: The Depot is placed on the National Register
of Historic Places (OMB No. 1024-0018) by Roger and Linda Hoff, who paid
$75,000 for the building.
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- December 20, 1991: The Hoffs sell the Depot for $105,000 to
David and Karen Bean (who later form a business partnership with Douglas
Dicken and Michael Sharon) and a 25 year lease (BNSF Term Lease No.
249,082) is signed. Thereafter, BNSF decides to limit the leases it
grants for the ground underneath the Depot to five years, apparently
impacting the structure’s commercial resale value.
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- Winter 1996/97: Freight service is resumed on the BNSF line
through Ellensburg.
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- April 1999: Historic Ellensburg asks Carl Easters of Easters &
Kittle ps. (of Issaquah and the architect of the Centralia Depot
project) to inspect the Ellensburg Depot property within the context of
restoration and adaptive re-use. Easters subsequently finds the
structure needs a new roof and weatherization. As a result of his input,
HE’s membership, whose collective track record for securing federal and
state grant money is excellent, decides to help the City of Ellensburg
apply for TEA-21 (Transportation Enhancement Act) funds to buy and
weatherize the Depot. The City, which had unsuccessfully applied twice
for the funds, began working with Historic Ellensburg to get the grant.
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- May 1999-present: Historic Ellensburg begins to monitor the
Depot, creating work parties to board up doors and windows (at the
nonprofit’s expense) after getting permission from the property owners.
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- September 9, 1999: In a letter to the City Engineer John Akers
from Easters & Kittle ps.,physical condition of the Depot, Carl Easters wrote: “The structure
should and will symbolize and anchor the development of the entire
Ellensburg Historical District. It then becomes partially what it once
was, a point of arrival for a variety of transportation modes…some
portions of the building could be leased to private sector users for
professional offices or other commercial uses.” Easters then issued a
warning: “The station’s most serious problem is the deterioration of the
roof…the sagging eave line seems to indicate the rafters are rotted and
must be replaced. In addition, broken dormer windows allow blowing rain
to move further into the structure. The problems with pigeons is obvious
and a health issue. The City could face loss of the structure if the
roof is not made weather-tight within one to two years at the most.” The
roof and structure became even more blighted after windstorms in the
summer of 2004 tore off large sections of shingles, exposing the aged
tarpaper underneath and making the blighted property a danger to public
health and welfare, as well as a target for vandalism.
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- September 13, 1999: John Akers, City Engineer, receives a
letter from Bean confirming his interest in selling the depot to the
City of Ellensburg, saying that the price “will be determined following
professional appraisal” and a mutually agreed upon price.
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- September 21, 1999: Historic Ellensburg, on behalf of the City
of Ellensburg, submits (and is later awarded) a TEA-21 grant proposal
for $221,000 with a $39,000 match required for acquisition and
weatherization of the Depot. The proposed future use was as a regional
intermodal transit center. This would include possible passenger rail
service to Seattle, specialty transit services (KCAC, Bowers Field
shuttle service, CWU shuttle service), bike trail links between the
fairgrounds/John Wayne Trail and Irene Reinhart Park, Greyhound bus
service and pedestrian amenities, connecting people to modes of
transportation now dispersed, defunct or non-existent. Additional
commercial, professional, and public uses are also proposed.
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- July 1999: Ellensburg’s Tourism Development Plan recommends
focused marketing of the downtown historic district and specifically
calls for the renovation of the Depot as a crucial long-term element.
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- February 2000: City receives notice of TEA-21 award (see
below).
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- October 16, 2000: James Vesely, a Seattle Times Columnist,
writes that there are alignments of conditions and geographysome similarities to the Stockton-San Jose commuter experience: “Just as
the rise of housing developments across the pass from San Jose to
Stockton helps sustain the growth of the Silicon Valley with affordable
homes, so would Ellensburg become attractive to people working in North
Bend and Issaquah”…and beyond.
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- February 2001: The City of Ellensburg is awarded federal
Transportation Enhancement Act (TEA) in the amount of $221,000,
requiring $39,000 in matching funds to secure the grant. In accepting
the grant proposal, the Washington State Department of Transportation
(WSDOT), which administers the federal grant program, finds that the
Depot rehabilitation plan is consistent with the Ellensburg
Comprehensive Plan, the Ellensburg Transportation Plan (adopted in
1995), the Non-Motorized Transportation System Plan (adopted in November
1997), and the Kittitas County Non-Motorized Transportation System Plan.
WSDOT further understands that the restoration of the Depot would
promote economic revitalization of a blighted area—a proven strategy as
has been shown in Tacoma, Centralia, Prosser, Walla Walla, Seattle and
Dayton, all cities that have raised enough public funds to restore or
begin the process of restoring their train stations.
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- February 2001: Ellensburg’s city coffers are decimated by
Initiative 695 and can’t spare the $39,000 in matching funds to secure
the TEA-21 grant. Historic Ellensburg offers to raise the match for the
City and does (see below).
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- Summer 2001: Historic Ellensburg raises the $39,000 match for
the City, mostly from individual donations of $50 or less, a testimony
to the breadth of community support for the organization’s Save Our
Station (SOS) initiative. The City agrees to remain partners with
Historic Ellensburg in the project long enough to accept the grant, buy
the building, and transfer ownership to the nonprofit group to complete
restoration of the structure by applying for more grants.
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- Fall 2001: Columbia Appraisals of Wenatchee gauges the Depot’s
value at $86,000, losing $19,000 in value since its purchase due to its
degraded condition.
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- March 2002: Historic Ellensburg and the City of Ellensburg
successfully negotiate a favorable 20 Year, $20,000 ($1,000 per year)
lease agreement with the Burlington Northern Sante Fe railroad for the
land on which the station sits, as required under the terms of the
TEA-21 grant. The lease is contingent upon the sale of the property to
the City and transfer to the nonprofit Historic Ellensburg.
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- November 2002: On behalf of the City of Ellensburg, the Depot
is officially appraised in accordance with TEA-21 guidelines by Eastman
Company, a “certified” and independent appraiser located in Seattle, at
$120,000, a $34,000 increase over the 2002 figure due to the addition of
the 20-year lease agreement negotiated by the city and Historic
Ellensburg with BNSF. Prior to appraisal, members of Historic Ellensburg
work 90 hours to clean and board up the Depot at the nonprofit’s expense
in an effort to raise the valuation of the building, make a better offer
within the guidelines of the TEA-21 grant, and save the structure from
further deterioration.
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- January 2003: A formal purchase offer is submitted to David
Bean and partners by the City’s federally certified negotiator, Roy
Lukins, offering $120,000.
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- January 21, 2003: After hearing the new appraisal, Depot owner
Dave Bean informs Historic Ellensburg VP Flo Lentz in an email: “…to be
honest my best option is to sell the building for salvage.”
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- March 14, 2003: The City’s negotiator, Roy Lukens of Universal
Field Systems in Edmonds, receives a letter from attorney Edward
Weigelt, in which the latter writes: “My client would be willing to sell
the property for $240,000…Please regard this letter as a counteroffer on
behalf of the owners,” an amount that is twice the Depotvalue (with BNSF lease) and almost three times the appraised value of
the real property (without BNSF lease).
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- April 3, 2003: In a letter to Ted Barkley (City Manager) and
John Akers (Public Works Director) from Jim Pidduck, the City Attorney,
states: “The City’s ability to resort to eminent domain [to force the
sale of the Depot] is quite questionable...” and “strictly construed” by
state statutes, so the City decides to make a revised and final offer.
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- April 25, 2003: The City’s federally certified negotiatoroffers the Depot
owners $132,000, a sum 10% over the appraised value (with BNSF lease)
and the maximum purchase price allowed under the
grant. This is an increase of $27,000 over the original purchase price
of $105,000, when the Depot was in good enough condition to rent, which
is no longer the case.
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- June 25, 2003: The City’s requested sixty-day response period
on the $132,000 Depot offer lapses with no communication from the Depot
owners and becomes null and void. At this point, the city and Historic
Ellensburg have exhausted all avenues for purchase and rehabilitation
under the federal grant guidelines.
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- Jun 15, 2004: The Washington Trust for Historic Preservation
puts the Depot on its “10 Most Endangered Properties List.”
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- November 4, 2004: The Washington Supreme Court declines to hear
an appeal of the City of Tacoma v. Ronald and Steffi Zimmerman, 119 Wn.
App. 738, clearing the way for cities and towns to use eminent domain to
seize blighted historic structures from neglectful owners who refuse to
sell or maintain their buildings.
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- January 27, 2005: Historic Ellensburg obtains a copy of the
briefs prepared for the Tacoma v. Zimmerman case, as well as the
ordinance created to condemn the property (which received the unanimous
support of the Tacoma City Council), from the Tacoma City Attorney’s
office and forwards it to Jim Pidduck (City Attorney), Ted Barkley (City
Manager) and John Akers (City Engineer), for action.
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- February 7, 2005: Historic Ellensburg asks the City Council to
approve an ordinance to acquire the property for the public good,
through eminent domain, using the TEA-21 grant to pay the owners a fair
market value.
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