Will controversial Pierce Co. property become a gas station? Here’s an update
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Pierce County received a $1.055M offer for the long-vacant Calahan property.
- Permit application proposes a convenience store, gas pumps and coffee stand.
- The buyer also mentioned interest in opening a restaurant. No plans have been solidified.
The future of a long-vacant red and green building on the corner of Key Peninsula Highway Northwest and 92nd Street Northwest is slowly becoming clearer.
Pierce County permit records indicate that a proposal has been submitted to convert the former restaurant building at 15610 Olson Dr. NW into a convenience store and add five fuel pumps to the site, along with a “mobile coffee stand facility.”
The Key Peninsula Fire Department, which owns the corner parcel in Key Center known as the “Calahan” property, announced in a post on Facebook Sept. 8 that the Board of Fire Commissioners “accepted a tentative offer” for the building.
“The final sale is pending a feasibility study and some financing factors,” the post said. “The buyer is a developer.”
The announcement, reposted in a Key Peninsula community Facebook group, generated speculation among commenters about what the property could become and what their preferences would be.
Board Chair Randy Takehara responded to questions in an email Sept. 11 confirming that the sale agreement is pending. The price agreed upon for the property is $1.055 million, he wrote.
The feasibility study seeks to assess “the change in occupancy of the property,” he wrote without providing further details. Asked when the board expects or estimates the sale to close, he wrote that the feasibility study has a window of 90 days, but the timeline beyond that is unclear.
It’s possible that the site could offer more than sundries and a place to fill up on gas.
The buyer, John Park, wrote in an email to The News Tribune Sept. 9 that he’s interested in opening up a convenience store and a restaurant after remodeling inside the building. He listed a few possibilities: a “Teriyaki & Chinese restaurant, or possible Japanese restaurant etc.,” he wrote.
Park is the registered agent for Taechang, LLC, a retail and real property investment business based in Gig Harbor, according to the business’s profile on the state Secretary of State’s website.
Besides asking about the buyer’s future plans, The News Tribune also asked what the feasibility study will assess and when Park expects or estimates the sale to be finalized. Park wrote that he doesn’t “have any firm positions” to share until the feasibility study is over.
The vacant building, formerly housing O’Callahan’s Pub & Grill, sits on a piece of real estate that’s been the subject of much controversy and speculation in recent years.
The fire department purchased the property along with two other parcels near their aging headquarters in 2021 for a total of $2.1 million with a low-interest bond, thinking to use the land for a new headquarters, training area and a medical clinic. The clinic was to be located on the Calahan property, but those plans were scrapped after the fire department decided it wasn’t financially feasible and another medical clinic opened nearby, The News Tribune reported.
The purchase set off a prolonged community dispute, as some residents raised concerns about the amount paid for the properties and what they saw as a lack of public input in the decision making process.
Voters later rejected a maintenance and operations levy the department had successfully passed since 2012, despite the fact that the levy was separate from the bond that paid for the properties, putting a hole in the department’s budget that forced staffing reductions and temporary closures of stations.
Tensions seemed to have cooled by this year’s August primary, when voters passed a levy to fund emergency medical services in the fire department.
The board of commissioners voted in January to list the Calahan property for sale, but discussions about what to do with the property had been ongoing. At one point a resident wanted to open an early learning center on the site, but the fire department decided her bids for the property were too low, fire commissioner Stan Moffett told The News Tribune last year.
This story was originally published September 14, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
