Everett, Wash.
Published: Sunday, November 23, 2008

Edmonds' historic Pink House earns a reprieve

By Chris Fyall
For The Herald

 EDMONDS -- For months, conservationists tried unsuccessfully to save Edmonds' Pink House. But where they failed, slow government process and a devastating global meltdown have succeeded: The landmark Victorian mansion is staying put.

For now.

Instead of the site of a new corporate headquarters, the home at 555 Main St. will be rented for the next 12 months as a residence, said officials with MaverickLabel.com, the Edmonds-based sticker and label distributor that purchased the house for $1.1 million in January.

The news is likely a relief to groups like the Washington Trust for Historic Preservation, which in May listed the posh 101-year-old house as one of eight buildings in the state on its Most Endangered Historic Properties list.

The four-bedroom, four-bathroom home -- which is no longer painted pink, as it was for decades -- should be available for a yearlong lease starting soon, said Rick Kent, Maverick Label.com's president.

The fate of the house after the lease is up in the air, Kent said.

For sure, officials with MaverickLabel.com never in­­tended to own a rental property.

In fact, company officials hoped to turn the property into a new corporate headquarters, Kent said. Architects envisioned a 2 1/2-story, mixed-use development with retail space, office space and parking for the company's 25 employees.

Preliminary plans were even presented to the city this summer.

There, the whole project stalled.

"We are in pause mode," Kent said. "At this point, we are re-evaluating (the headquarters building). But we were forced into that."

First, the company submitted preliminary plans, but the city didn't approve the plans until Oct. 21. By that time, the credit crisis was in full swing.

Loans were hard to come by and MaverickLabel.com's position had changed, Kent said.

"What was best for us in December 2007 is not necessarily best for us in the spring, summer or fall of 2009," he said.

Also, the company is growing, he said. It might need more square footage or new requirements by the time a new building could open.

Slow government process and tight credit have given the Pink House a reprieve, but they haven't necessarily saved it.

It is possible the Pink House will face the same fate a year from now that it did this past summer, Kent conceded.

That fate was never demolition. Aware of the Pink House's importance, company officials offered it to conservationists, requesting they pay to move the house somewhere downtown.

But despite months of meetings and hearings, the city's historical society and its historic commission could not find a new home for the house. City officials said they couldn't help.

The city cares about its landmarks, but it isn't equipped to moved them on public lands, Mayor Gary Haakenson said.

"We are just not in that business," Haakenson said.



Reporter Chris Fyall: 425-673-6525 or cfyall@heraldnet.com.
© 2009The Daily Herald Co., Everett, WA