Olympia wants to buy the burned-out shell of Griswold building

Olympia is trying to buy the vacant Griswold office supply building, which has sat empty since a fire destroyed it in 2004.

The property is in the 300 block of Fourth Avenue in downtown Olympia. The boarded-up facade features a rainbow-themed mural that reads “Respect and Love Olympia.”

At a meeting Tuesday, the Olympia City Council authorized the city manager to finalize negotiations and move forward with acquiring the site for $300,000.

City Manager Steve Hall said the city is doing “due diligence” on the proposal, which is “not a done deal.” But if everything checks out, he said, the deal could close by late May or early June.

“It has been an eyesore on Fourth Avenue since it burned,” Hall said of the site.

According to the proposal, the city would assume all closing costs. The city also will pay for environmental testing and a structural assessment that could cost up to $30,000. About half the property purchase would be covered by a Community Development Block grant, Hall said.

Although the next step has not been set in stone, Hall said the city would likely pursue a partnership with a private developer to redevelop the site.

In 2007, Cliff Lee bought the Griswold building for $257,500, but has struggled to finance renovations. At one point, Lee wanted to turn the building and its courtyard into a performance space.

Lee owes $9,252 in back taxes on the property, according to the Thurston County Assessor’s Office, which reports the property’s value at $348,550.

Lee told The Olympian that he was unable to secure enough financial backing to develop the property and said he was disappointed about its potential sale.

“I really invested a lot into it. We tried different things to make it work,” he said. “If I had enough finances, I would probably spearhead a project.”

The mural on the building was painted in 2014 by South Sound artist Vince Ryland, partly in response to a crime in which a man was assaulted by another man yelling homophobic remarks.

Situated in one of downtown’s more troubled blocks, the vacant building has long drawn criticism for its blighted appearance.

In fact, the building is one of several sites identified in the city’s Community Renewal Area process. The CRA is an economic development tool that expands Olympia’s power to revitalize downtown properties that are in poor condition by making deals with private property owners and developers. A primary objective for the CRA is to redevelop vacant buildings and eliminate blight in downtown Olympia.

This story was originally published March 24, 2016 at 12:56 PM with the headline "Olympia wants to buy the burned-out shell of Griswold building."