Squaxin Island Tribe plans to turn Olympia justice center into destination hotel
The Olympia City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to sell the Lee Creighton Justice Center campus on Plum Street to the Squaxin Island Tribe for $8.2 million.
The tribe plans to transform the 10.7-acre campus at the entrance to the city into a hotel with meeting space and a restaurant.
However, the plan was met with dissent from some residents, including a number of local judges and people who currently work on the campus. There isn’t a plan yet for relocating the services and destinations now on the site: the municipal court services, the Yashiro Japanese Garden, or the Plum Street Village tiny homes that have kept dozens off the street since 2019.
Under the agreement, the City will have 18 months of full use of the property, until the tribe takes possession in December 2026. The City will use that time, and the $8.2 million from the property sale, to move the services and employees now based on the property.
Tribal leaders explain their plan
David Burnett, CEO of Island Enterprises, said the tribe has been wanting to engage with the city on a project within city limits for many years.
Burnett said local leaders have been meeting with stakeholders to put together a destination master plan for the region and find more ways to attract more visitors to Thurston County. One of the things noted in that report was that Olympia needs meeting space.
Burnett said the plan so far for the property is to build a hotel with about 20,000 square feet of meeting space and a landmark-style restaurant.
“This truly would be a project that would not only benefit the tribe, it would benefit the city of Olympia, it would benefit the State of Washington,” he said.
Burnett said Island Enterprises, which encompasses retail, farming, hospitality and entertainment, employs more than 1,500 people. He said an estimated 10% to 15% are tribal members, which means the tribe is helping provide well over 1,000 jobs beyond the tribe.
Total gross revenue within all of the tribe’s enterprises is roughly $200 million, he said.
Tribal Chairman Kris Peters said the tribe believes the project is something that will be mutually beneficial to the tribe and city. He said it will uplift the economy, as well as the Plum Street corridor.
“We’re going to bring something unique and needed to this area, to both the community and to visitors and guests,” he said. “I’m going to get in trouble for saying this, but we’re not building a casino. I’ll just coil that right now.”
Peters said the decision to sell the property to the tribe didn’t happen in a vacuum.
“This is months and months of conversations and working agreements, and we understand the potential impacts of this community in that area,” he said. “We believe it’ll be a good thing, we truly do. And that’s as a lifelong member of the Olympia area.”
Peters said the tribe is also excited for the project because it allows its members to get back in touch with their ancestral lands, which he said “isn’t a piece of land the federal government set aside for us in Mason County.”
Speaking during public comment, Michael Cade, the executive director of the Thurston Economic Development Council, said he was invited to tour Island Enterprises’ businesses about five years ago. What he thought was going to take 45 minutes turned into three days of touring and meeting people.
“This is a high quality investment, and as they think about what they’re going to do there, or potentially do there at that site, I am very confident that you are welcoming into that site a gateway project into Thurston County and Olympia,” he said.
Connection to court decision
The decision to sell the property has impact beyond the tribe’s plans.
The city has been considering contracting with Thurston County for the municipal court services now housed on the Plum Street site, according to a news release. The county already provides municipal criminal justice and jail alternative programs and services for most other communities in Thurston County.
Pam Nogueira, the city’s Municipal Court Judge, was previously a Thurston County Superior Court Commissioner. She told The Olympian that Municipal Court has significantly improved local services, including treatment courts and resource fairs addressing homelessness, substance use and mental health.
She said the city has excluded the court from discussions, and the lack of transparency has been frustrating.
The court’s staff, many of whom took jobs with the municipal court instead of district court, face potential job insecurity. Some staff are considering unionizing as a result, according to Nogueira.
Nogueira said the city’s decision also could impact other municipalities and public services such as probation and pre-trial services. She said if the city and county enter into an agreement, then every future budgetary decision, if they disagree on something, goes to arbitration, and an arbiter decides for them.
“You lose the ability to have a say,” she said. “If you’re just talking financials, it still doesn’t make sense.”
Nogueira said she’s been with the court for a year and a half now, and a lot has changed in the city for the better since then. She worries if this plan goes through, much of that work will disappear.
“It’s so much focus on what Olympia needs to truly address head on: houselessness, substance use, mental health,” she said. “And all of these efforts have just now been put into place, and they may go away.”
Nogueira said she thinks it’s shortsighted on the city’s part to not work directly with someone with court experience to guide their decision making.
“It feels like they’re (city council) not wanting to fight the real problems,” she said. “They’re focused on today.”
Judges lobby for court
Dave Larson is a judge with Federal Way Municipal Court. He’s also the chair of the Council of Independent Courts. He said he wrote the city council a few weeks ago offering the council’s assistance in helping the city navigate its court problems.
Larson attended Tuesday’s council meeting to again offer his services. He said other jurisdictions in Washington that have moved their municipal court duties to county district court have regretted doing so.
“The loss of local control is significant, and Auburn, for instance, has been regretting it since 2012 when they moved to King County,” he said.
Court Services Director Scott Ahlf said he spent 19 years as a judge in Olympia, and he wants to see the municipal court live on.
Ahlf said about 10 years ago he stood in front of the council asking to create a community court. They were given permission, and the court became one of four mentor courts in the country at the time.
He said municipal court has flexibility when it comes to how it works and what it does for the community it serves. The district court, however, doesn’t have the same level of flexibility.
Mayor, manager weigh in
Mayor Dontae Payne said it’s not lost on him the irony of the tribal leaders having to stand in front of city leaders to purchase stolen land back. He said there’s also an insinuation the tribe doesn’t have the city’s best interests in mind, despite no evidence of that.
“Frankly, all Indian tribes across the nation, the fact that they approach us with diplomacy, with a government-to- government relationship, as opposed to fighting us to get back what’s theirs, we should all be humbling ourselves for that,” he said. “And I don’t understand why we are here to sort of make these insinuations that seem very insidious and steeped in something else that I will just save for another time.”
Payne also acknowledged the city employees who work on the Plum Street campus and are stuck in limbo. He said no decisions have been made regarding contracting with the county. But selling the property to the tribe is an opportunity they can’t pass up, he said.
City Manager Jay Burney said staff have reached out to Olympia’s sister city organization to consider relocating options for the Yashiro Japanese Garden.
He said staff are also looking at options for relocating current residents of the Plum Street Village tiny home complex into other housing options.
Burney said they’re also working with police staff on the future of the Saturday waste drop off on the east side of the site, and to evaluate options for parking needs and long-term storage for OPD.
This story was originally published April 9, 2025 at 11:41 AM.
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