Leavenworth moves forward with purchase of car wash property

LEAVENWORTH – The City of Leavenworth will be purchasing the former Cascade Quick Lube and Car Wash property for $1.9 million.

The city has been considering acquiring the property, located at 1451 U.S. Highway 2, for municipal purposes since at least 2018. However, it chose not to pursue it further based on a known contamination site across the highway, formerly known as Glacier Park. The Glacier Park site was impacted by petroleum contamination and has received cleanup efforts since the 1990s. 

A 2023 space needs assessment indicated that the property would be needed for a public works campus, as well as to add capacity for a future expansion of the wastewater treatment plant. The city then pursued a Toxics Cleanup Integrated Planning Grant (IPG) with the Department of Ecology (DOE).

“The grant from the Department of Ecology was a key aspect of this acquisition,” said City  Administrator Matthew Selby in a press release. “Knowing that the property is uncontaminated made the decision to  acquire this strategic parcel an easy one for the City Council.”

In October 2023, the city was awarded a $200,000 IPG from DOE to perform due diligence and plan the property's possible acquisition. The same month, the city commissioned Newmark Valuation and Advisory, which appraised the property at $2.16 million.

After conducting two phases of Environmental Site Assessments and a Hazardous Materials Survey this spring, the city found no environmental constraints on the property and proposed the purchase to the City Council, which approved the $1.9 million purchase from Willkommen LLC during its meeting on July 9. The city anticipates an August closing date for the acquisition.

According to Selby, the first step with the property may be to fill the immediate need for parking department office space.

“It's not a plan yet, but it's an idea, is actually to move [the] parking [department] into the car wash building. That will free up where parking took over office space that was unoccupied by some public works staff. It'll give us a little more room over there,” said Selby, during the meeting.

Taylor Caldwell: 509-433-7276 or taylor@ward.media