PORT ANGELES — A new performing arts center envisioned for Port Angeles will occupy property on Oak Street, the Peninsula College Foundation has announced.
Dorothy Field of Port Angeles has gifted the foundation $1.425 million to purchase the undeveloped land on the northwest corner of Front and Oak streets near the city waterfront, officials said Wednesday.
“I love Port Angeles and its arts community, and I just wanted to do my part,” Field said in a news release.
The 70,000-square-foot Oak Street property will house a venue that will be designed and built thanks to a $9 million gift from late Port Angeles resident Donna Morris, who died in 2014.
The sale of the Oak Street property to the Peninsula College Foundation was privately negotiated with Mr. and Mrs. Tod McClaskey Jr. of Vancouver, Wash., who also own Olympic Lodge in Port Angeles.
Negotiations resulted in a “bargain sale” with a purchase price that was $350,000 less than the $1.76 million appraised value, officials said.
The Peninsula College Foundation is serving as a conduit for the funds that Morris bequeathed.
An ad hoc Performing Arts Center Committee was formed five months ago to oversee the project.
“We are grateful that the McClaskeys … were willing to make this significant contribution to the project,” said S. Brooke Taylor, Performing Arts Center Committee chairman and retired Clallam County Superior Court judge.
“They had previously donated a permanent easement over a portion of the parcel to the city of Port Angeles for development of the new waterfront park and trail, leaving approximately 1.6 acres of land available for the performing arts center project.”
Ownership of the Oak Street property will be transferred from the foundation to a newly-created nonprofit as soon as the organization is granted tax-exempt status.
“Thanks to the generosity of Dorothy Field and the McClaskeys we now have in place a perfect downtown location for the facility envisioned by Donna M. Morris, and still have the entire Morris gift of $9 million intact,” Taylor said in a news release.
“The PAC (Performing Arts Center) Committee and the Peninsula College Foundation board are very excited about the possibilities.”
Taylor added in a recent interview said the Field’s gift was a “another huge piece of the puzzle” for the project.
With a site secured, the committee will select an architectural firm to design the performing arts center.
A request for proposals was issued July 1. Responses are due Aug. 12.
Meanwhile, the committee will gather input from seven local groups named in the Morris will: Peninsula College, Peninsula College Foundation, city of Port Angeles, Port Angeles Fine Arts Center, Port Angeles Symphony, Community Players and Juan de Fuca Foundation.
The Performing Arts Center Committee is made up of representatives from each of those groups.
Public input will be sought through a needs assessment, officials said.
“We only have one chance to get this right,” Taylor told the Peninsula Daily News.
City zoning would allow the structure to be as tall as 45 feet, said Nathan West, Port Angeles community and economic development director.
West said the performing arts center will improve downtown vibrancy, especially in the winters, and complement the investment the city made in its 1.5-acre waterfront park west of Railroad Avenue.
The $1 million West End Park opened last September. It abuts the Oak Street property where the facility will be built.
“We’re very excited about it,” said West, a Performing Arts Center Committee member who was speaking on behalf of the city.
“We’re extremely grateful to both Mr. and Mrs. McClaskey, and especially grateful to Dorothy Field, who actually donated that property.
“We think it’s a phenomenal thing for her to have done with the community’s best interest in mind, and we’re extremely grateful,” West added.
Field declined to be interviewed Wednesday. She is serving on the ad hoc committee as a liaison for the Port Angeles Symphony.
Three developers have approached the city with interest in redeveloping the Oak Street property in the last decade, West said.
Most recently, Neeser Construction Inc. of Anchorage, Alaska offered to buy the land in 2014 and build a 63,000-67,000-square-foot marine science and conference center.
The sale fell through in June 2014 because the city could not meet Neeser’s deadline for a commitment to lease conference space in the two buildings.
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 56450, or at rollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.
