More than 50 people showed up at city hall in Langley on Thursday afternoon to talk about how to preserve the historic Dog House Tavern.
“Everybody’s sad that it’s sitting there empty and nobody’s doing anything about it,” said Aaron Racicot of Langley, a local technology consultant who helped organize the hastily called meeting along with Kim Norton of Clinton, a business consultant.
Four Langley City Council members, Robert Gilman, Rene Neff, Russell Sparkman and Bob Waterman, attended the meeting, along with city planning director Larry Cort and Langley Chamber of Commerce director Sherry Mays.
Supporters hope to find a way to buy the iconic building on First Street and Anthes Avenue, the only building in Langley on the National Register of Historic Places. Owned by Wendy Jacobs of Langley, the tavern has been closed for much of the past year.
While it remains listed for sale for a recently reduced price of $779,000, the property has fallen into foreclosure, and if it isn’t sold, it will be auctioned off in April.
Steve Sullivan of Chesterfield Mortgage Investors in Seattle, which holds the lien on the Dog House, said earlier Thursday that it would take about $575,000 in principal, interest and fees to assume the note.
He said if no buyer comes forward, the mortgage company would itself bid on the property at auction, then try to sell it.
Sullivan said he has talked with city officials and a number of other interested persons who want to preserve the Dog House as a tavern and community gathering place.
“Hopefully, whoever buys it will want the same thing,” he said.
Norton said she knows of three other parties other than local interests who have their eye on the Dog House, including an Oregon couple.
Paul Sarkis, owner of Village Pizzeria in downtown Langley, has been pursuing the property for months. He said he has spent $18,000 in research and surveys.
But Sarkis said he has been unable to come to terms with the owner, and that banks are reluctant to invest in the property without a large down payment.
Sarkis said the building, which has three floors of about 2,300 square feet each, has fallen into disrepair and would require as much as $400,000 to bring it up to standards.
He said he would move his pizzeria into the basement of the Dog House, would maintain the ground floor as a restaurant and tavern, and would lease the upper floor for “the highest and best use,” perhaps a residence or a home office.
Sarkis said his interest in the property remains strong, but he can’t do it alone.
“When I got to $18,000, I got a little seasick,” he said of his preliminary investment.
“If I were queen, I would buy that building and give it to you,” Sharen Heath of Langley told Sarkis. “I miss it.”
Sarkis said collective action may be a possible approach. He said if
200 people put up $5,000 each, $1 million could be raised for the project.
Or 100 people contributing $10,000 each.
“If you can find 199 other people, I’m in for $5,000,” Heath said.
“We could be the Green Bay of the West,” Waterman said, referring to the community-owned professional football team in Wisconsin.
Waterman said the city is anxious to include the Dog House on the city’s list of historic places, but that requires owner approval.
Originally called the Olympic Club when it was built, the three-story building had a gymnasium on the lower floor, with a stage and auditorium on the top floor. It also housed a general store before becoming the Dog House Tavern at the end of Prohibition.
Norton and Racicot declared the meeting a successful beginning in a community effort to preserve the Dog House.
They agreed to compile an e-mail list and continue to explore ways to acquire the tavern, lest it fall into the hands of developers who would tear it down and build something else.
“For stuff to actually happen, the community has to be involved,” Racicot said.
Racicot can be reached at 221-2441 or aaronr@z-pulley.com. Norton can be reached at 341-4606 or kim@jetcity
consulting.com.
