Multi-Faceted Transactions Moves Community Center Forward
Information and preliminary artist rendering released by Seven Acres Foundation
In a move of major significance, the Seven Acres Foundation has announced that the multi-faceted transaction to acquire six acres of land below the Lookout housing development has now officially been completed. This enables Seven Acres to commence with groundbreaking next month for construction of the Community Center at Lake Chelan, a large multi-purpose facility designed to meet the needs of a wide range of Chelan Valley residents.
In making the announcement, Ben Williams, Board President of the Seven Acres Foundation, said “we can really look at this closing as a quadruple win, where four separate entitities got together in a spirit of cooperation to enhance the future of our area.” Williams went on to explain the history of the transaction, saying that initially the Foundation and Real Life Church planned to build a Community Center along Anderson Road on property purchased by Real Life Church. At roughly the same time, the Chelan Valley Housing Trust and the Lookout were planning an affordable housing project on property to be donated by the Lookout. Then toward the end of last year, the parties started discussing swapping locations, where the Housing Trust’s affordable housing project would end up on Anderson Road and the Community Center would be situated just below the Lookout. The culmination of the agreements to trade locations resulted in multiple transactions that closed simultaneously, with each transaction conditioned on the other transactions occurring. “Bottom line,” said Williams, “is that there were a lot of moving parts, with coordination and cooperation necessary by all involved for this to occur. Everything really turned out very well, and we can’t thank Real Life, the Chelan Valley Housing Trust and the Lookout enough.”
Mike Cooney, Executive Director of the Chelan Valley Housing Trust, is also quite pleased with how all of this came together. “We’re absolutely thrilled to be ending up with nine acres of wonderfully suited property along Anderson Road to build a planned neighborhood of affordable homes. This will fulfill our property needs for years to come. The parties all worked together to create a deal with the best outcome for each organization. This is a huge win for our community,” he said.
Dallas Widmark, General Manager of the Lookout, said “we are extremely pleased to have played a role in helping facilitate this great win. In return for our three-acre donation, Chelan Valley workers will now have access to many more units of workforce housing, the Seven Acres foundation has a convenient new location between the towns of Chelan and Manson, and the Lookout community and Chelan Valley residents will all have a great new facility to utilize.”
Kyle Plew, pastor at Real Life Lake Chelan, has enjoyed being part of this evolving transaction, saying “this land swap is representative of what the Community Center at Lake Chelan is all about. Namely, when everyone gives a little, the entire community benefits a lot. I could not be more excited.”
For more information on the Seven Acres Foundation, the Chelan Valley Housing Trust, the Lookout and Real Life Lake Chelan, please visit the following websites:
http://sevenacresfoundation.org/
https://chelanvalleyhousing.org/
