BELLINGHAM, WA (MyBellinghamNow.com) – The former Willows Inn property is back on the market.
Lighthouse Mission President and CEO Hans Erchinger-Davis told My Bellingham Now that several factors led to the expiration of their original deal.
“We realized ‘Oh, we need to actually replace the septic system.’ and by that time, the existing agreement had pretty well expired. We were going to renegotiate, but what the buyers wanted to do was pretty complex and just outside of what we wanted. so, the deal fell flat,” Erchinger-Davis said.
The new septic system cost $250,000 to install, bringing the asking value up to just under $2.3 million.
Erchinger-Davis emphasized that the property’s sale will directly help them pay the remainder of the costs associated with their new facility on F Street.
“We’re trying to sell this fast. We really don’t want to be carrying the construction loan debt on our new facility, and we just want to get it paid off,” Erchinger-Davis said.
The Mission Building has about $1.8 million in construction costs left to cover, which will include expanded services in the future.
“There’s one part of our program in the new facility that hasn’t been opened yet so that we can have even more capacity. and that’s for our behavioral health shelters in the facility. and we can’t open those until we know that the debt has been paid off.”
This marks the third time the former Willows property has been placed on the market since it was donated to the Lighthouse Mission in 2022.
