Developer has plans to boost downtown Freeland area

Published 11:00 am Wednesday, January 4, 2006

With Freeland growing at warp speed from a sleepy rural community to a busy service center for South Whidbey residents, one local businessman is expected to play a key roll in the community’s development in 2006.

Steve Myres, owner of the commercial electrical contracting firm Sound Electric, has plans to change the face of downtown Freeland for the better.

Myres recently purchased two buildings — the old auto repair shop and the old gas station that now houses a yarn shop — at the corner of Main Street and Harbor Avenue. Soon those old structures will be gone and in their place two new buildings that Myres hopes will offer a blueprint to other property owners.

His plans are to construct two 4,000-square-foot buildings with entrances facing Harbor Avenue. There will be two floors of mostly retail space.

Parking will be behind the structures, accessed off Main Street.

“The buildings will have a lot of curb appeal,” Myres said.

Myres plans to put in sidewalks, and a courtyard with trellises and benches will be featured in between the two buildings.

“Walking from the bank to the grocery store, walkers play dodge ball with cars,” he said.

Myres said he was inspired in part to purchase the corner building when he saw what the owners of Knitty Pearls did to turn the old gas station into an appealing shop.

“I remember buying gas at that station when I was a teenager,” Myres said.

This is not Myres’ first foray into building development. His first project was the office building that houses his offices and warehouse space.

Built in 2000, it is located just off Main Street behind Frontier Lumber. The building features attractive roof lines visible from Highway 525.

“I wanted my office building to be appealing, not an in-your-face kind of warehouse and office structure,” Myres said.

As he sits in the office building he constructed five years ago, Myres’ stamp as a commercial electrical contracting firm is already on a number of buildings in Freeland. Those include Payless Foods, Porter Windermere Building, Island Athletic Club, Freeland Clinic, China City and Frontier Lumber.

Myres graduated from Langley High School in 1973 and spent several years working construction and fishing in Alaska.

He credits his parents and former South Whidbey resident Paul Reidel for his success today. Reidel was an electrician who mentored Myres as a young man.

“I have a lot of admiration for Paul. I don’t know where I would have ended up if he hadn’t taken me under his wing,” Myres said.