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Real Estate Developer Speaks out about Isthmus Revival

By Aude Jouanguy

On April 5, the City of Olympia and its consultant held a design workshop on a Community Renewal Area plan for the revitalization of the isthmus area in downtown Olympia. The workshop involved selected participants and focused on challenges, potential redevelopment, and possible improvements.

Joe Illing, a longtime resident of Olympia and commercial real estate developer, sat in the back of the room, and observed the meeting for a few minutes, like an uninvited guest at a party, although he owns a building situated near the isthmus. As the meeting started, he gave me his business card, invited me to contact him, and left the meeting, clearly frustrated.

"This spot has the most potential, this is actually where everything started, and this is the heart of Olympia," said Illing, when we met a couple weeks later. Illing's building at 406 South Water Street used to be an office leased to the State, and then became vacant a few years ago, along with a lot of other buildings in Olympia. It's a sad, little one story, 5,000 square foot building with 10 parking spaces, but it has a lot of potential.

SSGP: How long have you owned this building and why does Olympia have so many empty buildings?

Illing: I have owned this building for twenty five years. Since the Great Recession, the State shrunk and dropped thousands of employees. Their need for space was less and they consolidated agencies in larger buildings. Smaller buildings like the one I own were not budgeted, so it left Thurston County with over a million square feet of vacant space. If you took all of the vacant space in Thurston County and stack those on top of the Security Building, you'd have a 170 story building, that's how much vacant space there is.

SSGP: What about your building? No one is renting it.

Illing: No, not at the moment. There's lots of work to be done in order to bring it up to date: the whole ceiling has to go, windows needs to be replaced, leaks needs to be taken care of, the roof needs to have work done, the heating ventilator and the air conditioning also needs to be replaced, and it is not economic. It would actually cost more to restore it than building a new one. (Illing says he has received requests to rent it, but nothing serious).

SSGP: What is your future vision for this building?

Illing: Wouldn't it be nice to have a bar right here? Or perhaps build a condo? The isthmus is a beautiful place! You can see the lake on one side and you can see the Sound on the other, looking at the Olympics. You know the Pearl District in Portland, Oregon? (Illing shows me pictures of the District that he brought to show me.) These are the kind of buildings that can go on a corner. These are the kind of buildings Olympia could produce using the Governor's taxes so downtown would pay for itself. Everybody else pays taxes for deteriorating property and the people who own the property think it's still worth what it was but property downtown, technically, is worthless... Nobody wants to buy a dying property. And what fuels civic compassion? Tax money. You've got to have a vibrant economy. You also have to have development, and you need people in order to have taxes. It's like the city is waiting for something to happen just like in the theatrical play, "Waiting for Godot," by Samuel Beckett. I really like living in Olympia but downtown is sad. It needs more entertainment... In Europe, we'd be swarming with kids and vendors all around, so, why not utilize the isthmus area?

SSGP: Could you tell me a little bit more about the history you have with the community in Olympia?

Illing: I have been in Olympia since 1975 and for the first couple of years I worked for a newspaper in Lacey. I did their ads, photography, and I also did some writing. Then, I got into commercial real estate, until now... The price for property has gone down. You've got to get people down here, living and visiting! Have food carts across the street or apartment towers, then you'll have something where property values are right, but without that, values will keep going down.

Fourteen years ago I wrote a book for the 150th birthday of Olympia and thought I would write a poem and call it "Olympia." The book illustrates well what I think about the community. When I started to write the poem, I had an office in the Security Building... I walked into town... and if you stand here between the hours of 4 and 5 o'clock when people are getting off work, you can see how many are leaving... Nobody lives down here. The Capitol Building is part of the city's history in the state... over the years, state employment overshadowed the city and (squeezed out) all the other industries... Without state (employment), how many people would live here? Not too many...


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Updated 2015/01/07 21:14:22