Board members voted 3-1 Tuesday night to approve the purchase price of $8.25 million, plus interest of about $115,000, for 8.07 acres near the Frederickson industrial area.

A Safeway store currently leases the property at 16115 Canyon Road E., but it’s expected to move to a new building within several months.

Bethel and property owner CAH Investments Inc. recently settled on the price after the district launched condemnation proceedings to obtain the property.

Tuesday’s vote was a significant milepost in the Spanaway-area district’s quest to open a regional center to teach vocational and career skills to students throughout Pierce County.

The district originally planned to buy land in the Frederickson industrial employment zone for the center, but that effort fizzled when Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg in December 2006 vetoed a zoning change that would have allowed the center.

Since then, the district has examined well over 100 sites that were either unaffordable, too small or had access, wetland, zoning or some other problems.

“I think we should do a little happy dance,” board member Joy Cook said after the vote, referring to the several-yearlong effort to find a site.

Board member Ken Blair voted against the purchase. In an interview, he noted that the purchase price is nearly double the amount of the district’s first appraisal.

“I’m shocked at the price,” he said. “No way should we pay that amount of money for 8 acres.”

The district hired an appraiser last year that initially valued the property at $4.5 million, Rob Van Slyke, Bethel’s executive director of operations, said. Based on other sites they had investigated, that seemed low to district administrators. So they had a consultant work with the appraiser, who arrived at a revised value of $6 million.

“They knew the owner wouldn’t take that, and ordered the person to make a higher appraisal,” Blair said. “I said you never tell your appraiser to get a higher amount. I was the lone wolf on this one.”

In September, the district offered $6 million for the land, but CAH Investments turned it down, saying it had recently rejected a $10 million offer as too low and was in negotiations with another prospective buyer.

During the condemnation process, which calls for the parties to attempt to settle before going to trial, the owners obtained an appraisal valuing the property at about $10.4 million, Van Slyke said. A different appraiser for the district pegged the value at $7 million.

“Appraisal is an art, not a science,” Van Slyke noted.

The purchase money will come from the district’s 2006 construction bond.

Responding to Blair’s concern that administrators originally estimated they could find a site for $3.5 million, Van Slyke said, “We were really limited (in possible sites) and the price tag went up. … This was the best we could do.”

Coupled with an adjacent 2.5-acre site purchased from a separate owner for $1 million, the district now has 10.5 acres for the skills center.

Also Tuesday, board members voted 4-0 to accept $3.07 million from the state to design the skills center. The district plans to ask the Legislature for $30 million next session to fund the first phase of construction, which will include two new buildings and partial remodeling of the store building, said Bethel’s career and technical education director Mike Christianson.

If funding comes through, construction could start next summer, allowing 300 full-time-equivalent students to attend the school starting in September 2011. They will choose from such programs as allied health, computer science hardware and software, veterinary assisting, materials engineering, culinary arts, early childhood education and construction.

In a second phase, the district would seek $11 million to finish renovating the store building and additional construction to house criminal justice, auto technology, and commercial design and art.

Debby Abe: 253-597-8694