Yellow Pages
LA CONNER — The Upper Skagit Indian Tribe recently purchased 6 acres on the La Conner waterfront, including a warehouse and small pier, for $6.8 million.
The land, acquired from La Conner Pier LLC, is directly across the Swinomish Channel from the Swinomish Indian Reservation.
About a half-dozen organizations lease property on the land formerly owned by the Roche Harbor-based limited liability corporation. Among the lessees are the state Department of Fish and Wildlife and two manufacturers, Alpac Components Co. and Comptex Inc.
The tribe has been considering purchasing or leasing property on the channel for at least two years. In March 2008, geotechnical issues caused tribal leaders to decide against leasing the town-owned, condemned cannery and docks, located south of Rainbow Bridge.
When the tribe contemplated a lease with the town, one possibility was moving the tribal fisheries department to that site and providing the tribe’s commercial fishermen with moorage and a location to unload their catch.
The tribe has not disclosed its plans for the property formerly owned by La Conner Pier.
“The property diversifies the tribe’s economic holdings while at the same time allowing it to provide better opportunities to its fisheries,” according to the tribe’s statement released Wednesday. “The tribe has no immediate plans to change the property’s current use; however it will evaluate future business opportunities for the property as they arise.”
The deal for the pier’s 18 parcels north of the bridge closed July 1 and included the transfer of a lease of state-owned tidelands. The Skagit Valley Herald obtained the records from the sale Wednesday from the Skagit County Treasurer’s Office and the Recording Division of the county Auditor’s Office.
The tribe owns the Skagit Valley Casino Resort on Interstate 5, north of Burlington. Its 80-acre reservation, just northeast of Sedro-Woolley, is home to about 200 of its 1,030 members.
The tribal property includes most of the land bordered by the Swinomish Channel, Caledonia Street, South Third Street and Sherman Avenue. Two residences on South Third are not owned by the tribe.
Craig Dorsey, former pier operator, said he had owned the property for 16 years and had been approached about selling. The waterfront is suitable for both commercial and recreational boating traffic, he said.
“I was not trying to sell the property,” Dorsey said. “I don’t know what the tribe wants to do with that property. They have a strong interest in the pier and the float system.”
The property is zoned for commercial development, and so far, the tribe hasn’t filed any applications, said John Doyle, La Conner town administrator. Historically, the property was used by a shipping company and a cannery, which was demolished, he said.
Dorsey renovated and enlarged the building used by the shipping company, installing office space, which the state now uses, Doyle said.
“We’d love to see the waterfront developed to have water-dependent and water-related business and industries,” Doyle said.
n Marta Murvosh can be reached at 360-416-2149 or .
