By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
The Yachats Rural Fire Protection District has completed the sale of its former station in downtown Yachats, adding $338,000 to its books and sending $115,430 to the city of Yachats.
The sale to investor Rick Ramsey of Corvallis closed the last week of September. He paid $485,000 for the 72-year-old two-story station and small house on West Second Street.
The sale included a $29,100 real estate commission and $2,375 in title and recording fees, said Frankie Petrick, Yachats fire district administrator.
Ramsey said he’s working on a leaking roof, windows, pipes, siding, cleanup and getting the small house at the rear of the property ready to rent.
“I am excited to get under way but also want to get a good feel for the most advantageous direction and use of the building,” he said in an email to YachatsNews.
He’s also trying to figure out if more than one living area is possible for the second floor of the building.
“For now it will be just one unit in only part of the space,” he said. “I will leave the rest of the building empty until research reveals a win/win opportunity. I do plan on continuing improvements … and am excited to get it looking better and have it be an asset to the community.”
Ramsey is a plumber by trade and owns a heating and air conditioning company that specializes in climate controls for medical and Class A offices. His wife, Joanne Ramsey, is a business adviser. They have investment properties in Salem, Corvallis, Mexico, and a complex of 300- to 700-year-old buildings in Newcastle West, Ireland.
Empty for two years
The station and the small house behind it has been empty since the fire department moved to its new station just north of Yachats in November 2019. It took nearly two years to get a commercial assessment on the property, work out an agreement with the city – which owned one of the parcels under the station — and prepare it for sale.
There was strong interest once it hit the market in May with an asking price of $550,000, with the board considering three offers and accepting Ramsey’s “as is” offer of $485,000.
The fire district intends to use its portion of the proceeds to help its budget, which has been running a deficit for the past three years and requiring the district to take out a $550,000 line of credit at the beginning of each year only to repay it after property taxes come in in November.
The district is seeking a new property tax levy of $1.59 per $1,000 assessed property value in November to remedy its financial problems.
The city of Yachats is also benefitting from the sale.
A small lot under the east equipment bay was owned by the city, which got the land decades ago when it took over the assets of the Yachats Water District. The city agreed to lease the lot to the fire district for $1 a year so it could expand the station. Payments were made for a time and then forgotten. In 1992, the city and fire district agreed that should the station ever be sold, the city would get a proportional piece of the sale based on the value of its lot.
The commercial assessment put the city’s portion at 24 percent of the entire property’s value.
In June, two Yachats council members – Ann Stott and Anthony Muirhead – thought it was unfair for the city to claim its share. That set off a short but inconclusive discussion over whether the city should enforcement the 29-year-old agreement, let the struggling fire district keep the money, or use some or all of the city’s proceeds to encourage a new owner to develop workforce housing.
Mr. Ramsey is researching uses for the former fire station. The building includes several garage bays. Another article in Yachats News reports that the Green Bike Co-op will need new garage space to continue its community service to Waldport and Yachats. Mr. Ramsey is looking for “win-win” tenants. This sounds like a match.