By Pepper Fisher
SEQUIM – The Shipley Senior Center in Sequim announced Friday they just closed the deal on Thursday and purchased the JCPenney building for $2.8 million cash.
Executive Director Michael Smith says the 29,000 square-foot building will become Shipley Center’s vastly expanded new home for activities and programs to benefit seniors and the community.
Smith says the first stage of designing their future home is meeting with the architect and coming up with a floor plan, which will include some health and fitness options they don’t have in their current home.
“We’re going to have our committee meet with Architect Roy Hellwig of Tormod Hellwig. And, you know, when you work with an architect, he asks you, “What activities do you want?” And we’re forming a list, and we have been for years. You know, things like basketball. We will have a ceiling high enough in there to play a basketball game, and play volleyball and pickleball, and other things like that. So, there will be a gym area where the ceiling will be high enough to do a lot of those sports that we can’t do in our current building.”
Originally built in 1981 as a Safeway grocery store, the building in the Sequim Village Center, at the corner of 7th and Washington, has been offered for lease, but just recently went on the market for sale for an asking price of $3 million.
As for the renovations, Smith says there’s a lot work of work ahead, and a lot more money will be needed, but the goal is to have the building ready to occupy in 18-24 months.
“We’re going to be raising money and appreciate continued support from the community. We’ll be applying for more grants as we go along, and we’re appreciative of the grants we’ve already received from the Albert Haller Foundation, the First Federal Community Foundation, and the Benjamin Phillips Fund of the Seattle Foundation. So we’ll be applying for other grants and looking for more support from the public as we look forward to doing our renovations.”
(Photo: Eileen Schmitz of JACE Real Estate, and Shipley Center Board Member, presents the keys to Michael Smith, Executive Director. At left are Joyce Gladen of JACE Real Estate, and Margaret Cox, Shipley Center Board Secretary.)