POULSBO — A purchase offer has been made for the former police station on Hostmark Street, and Mayor Becky Erickson said the prospective buyers may build apartments at the site.
The property, located at 367 NW Hostmark St. in downtown Poulsbo, currently contains a 3,800-square-foot building with parking. The original sale price was $1.05 million but, with no buyer forthcoming, the city dropped the price first to $950,000 and then to $900,000.
“The commercial economy is coming back right now,” Poulsbo Mayor Becky Erickson said of why it’s been hard to sell the building before now. “It’s a small (building), the footprint is a rather small piece of property. On the other hand, it’s got spectacular views and (is close) to downtown.”
Erickson said the building needed “someone with imagination to see what it could be.” Now, Michael Brown and Wesley Larson of Sound West Holdings, LLC, have made an offer on the property for the asking price, and the proposal will be brought before the City Council at the regular meeting at 7 p.m. June 10 in City Hall.
The city will ask for an earnest money deposit of $50,000.
The former city hall is also slated to become apartments, Erickson said. That building was purchased by Michael Burns, a Bainbridge Island businessman, in June 2014.
At the time, Erickson said, “There’s a market there, where people want to live in a downtown area but they can’t afford to go and buy a house. They want to live close to the downtown core and this will give them a chance to do that — to live downtown with covered parking, and the bus will go right by there. It’s alluring, not only to younger people but elderly people as well.”
Erickson said the apartments proposed for the former city hall site are in the plan-review process now.
“I just am really excited about two apartment buildings in downtown Poulsbo,” Erickson said. “I think they will rent immediately. It’s a natural consequence to the development of downtown, and I’m really excited.”
