Key Peninsula Fire Department plans to sell one of its contentious Key Center properties
The Key Peninsula Fire Board of Commissioners voted at their meeting Jan. 28 to list a corner property in Key Center, formerly the site of O’Callahan’s Pub & Grill, for sale, the department posted on Facebook.
Known locally as the “Calahan property,” the corner parcel at Key Peninsula Highway Northwest and 92nd Street Northwest is one of three pieces of land the fire department purchased in 2021. The Calahan property was going to be the site of a medical clinic, but that plan was scrapped after the fire department decided it wasn’t financially feasible and after another medical clinic opened nearby, Commissioner Stan Moffett told The News Tribune.
The department also planned to build a new fire station to replace their aging headquarters and a new training area on the two parcels behind the Calahan property, known as the “Olson properties” after the family that sold the land to the department, according to Moffett. Those plans haven’t yet materialized, The News Tribune reported.
The three parcels, purchased for $2.1 million through a low-interest bond, became the center of a prolonged community dispute. In the months following the purchase, some residents took issue with the sum the department paid and criticized the department for acting without enough public input, The News Tribune reported. Following that criticism, voters declined to pass a maintenance and operations levy last year, despite the fact that the levy is separate from the bond that paid for the properties.
That M&O levy, which pays for staffing, facility maintenance and equipment, failed to pass in November for the first time since 2012. It fell half a percentage point short of the 60% supermajority required to pass such levies in Washington state.
The levy’s failure forced the department to cut $800,000 from its operating budget, according to fire chief Nick Swinhart in a January update on their website. The cuts include leaving a vacant firefighter position unfilled and reducing their daily minimum staffing from seven to five personnel. The reduced staffing has led to three temporary station closures or “brownouts” since the start of January, and the department expects more in the future, he wrote.
The department’s Facebook post Jan. 29 said the fire commissioners are in talks with a listing agent for the Calahan property. It also reminded residents that the department will be hosting a Town Hall March 8 from 6-8 p.m. at the Key Peninsula Civic Center about the department’s capital facilities plan.
Key Peninsula resident Alyssa Johnstone told The News Tribune in January 2024 that she was interested in purchasing the corner parcel to open a daycare. On Jan. 23, 2024, she presented her plan to the fire commissioners, board meeting minutes indicate. The commissioners unanimously voted to decline her offer.
Johnstone spoke at a town hall meeting Oct. 10 and said she was still interested in leasing the property, The News Tribune reported. She told The News Tribune via email Tuesday that she is watching for the listing and “currently working with architects to create a feasibility study and design for the childcare center,” which she sees as a need in the community.
“I have worked with real estate professionals to guide my efforts in acquiring this property and although my initial offers were not favorable to the board due to price, I think that the information I gave to them paints a clear picture of what any organization would have to do to get this building functional and what price would have to be spared in order to do so,” Johnstone wrote.
The News Tribune reached out to the five Key Peninsula Fire commissioners Jan. 30 for comment.
Commissioner Randy Takehara said via email that the Calahan property was originally going to be the site of a new medical clinic run by the fire department, but after that didn’t work out, “the need and community’s desire to have a public clinic has waned.”
“I was in no rush to resell the property over the last couple of years due to the downturn in the real estate market and rise in interest rates, etc.,” he wrote. “At this point, I feel timing is better and am open to explore putting it back on the market in the future.”
Commissioner Stan Moffett told The News Tribune via phone that he voted to put the Calahan property up for sale and “was very much in favor of it.”
Asked if the commissioners have a price in mind for the Calahan property, he said he would “guess that it would probably be a little bit in excess of a million dollars,” but they’ll talk about it soon.
He also explained the procedure the commissioners took to identify a broker. The capital facilities committee, which he said includes Commissioner Shawn Jensen and himself, identified four brokers suggested by members of the public and commissioners, he said. They also received an unsolicited proposal from a fifth broker. Several of them specialize in brokering commercial properties. In selecting a broker to work with, one of the board’s concerns was finding a person who could reach out to buyers outside the local area to “get a better scope of potential buyers overall,” he said.
Asked if the board has an idea of what kind of business or organization they’d like to occupy the property, he said that who this potential buyer is and what their intention for the property is isn’t a concern for them at this time, as long as the use is legal and obeys the zoning rules.
Moffett said he’s hoping the department can get the Calahan property officially listed on the market within two weeks. As for the Olson properties, he said the board is still sitting on those “and would still like to see the potential development of those properties for a future headquarters,” dependent on further input from the community. Another community survey will be released soon, he said. At the March 8 town hall, the commissioners will present their capital facilities plan, which is available on their website and includes early designs for a future headquarters and training facility as well as upgrades to other existing facilities, to the public and take questions, according to Moffett.
He also said that the department would be willing to consider an offer from the resident who wanted to build a daycare at the Calahan property, though the board declined the two proposals they received from that resident last year because they found the price she was offering to pay was too low.
“I know that individual is continuing to look at the property, and they’ve already told us that they are going to be extending another offer,” Moffett said. “What that will be, when it will be, how it will be approached, I don’t know at this particular time.”
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story mischaracterized the Key Peninsula Fire Department’s plans to build new headquarters and a training facility. The Board of Fire Commissioners remains interested in building on the Olson properties behind the Calahan property, Commissioner Stan Moffett told The News Tribune. This story has also been updated with comments from Key Peninsula resident Alyssa Johnstone.
This story was originally published January 30, 2025 at 1:24 PM.
