07/19/2021
Sunday, July 18, 2021
Dear friends of the Shaw Store,
For the Save the Shaw Store team and its many helpers, the last seven months have been a whirlwind of community outreach, fundraising, and research. We have worked to form a nonprofit and toward purchasing the Shaw Store, marina, and warehouse, as well as toward assuming the contract with Washington State Ferries to run the Shaw ferry terminal. Our vision for this project includes the Orcas Food Co-op operating the store year-round, the property’s living spaces serving as reasonably-priced rentals for store and ferry workers, and our keeping the post office in place.
Throughout this process, our group has remained committed to our local community owning the property through the Save the Shaw Store nonprofit. We believe that such ownership is in the community’s best interests: The store and larger property would no longer be subject to the needs of any one individual or family, and working with the Orcas Food Co-op offers a more financially sound approach for a small store such as ours.
The Save the Shaw Store team has done a tremendous amount of due diligence. We have collected almost two gigabytes of documents including:
- inspection reports
- financial reports
- surveys
- histories and current status of the septic and water systems
- permits
- proposals for needed work, including shoring up the pilings beneath the warehouse and completing the renovation of the marina
- specific projects for bringing the store property up to code.
That information helped us shape a detailed business plan (which included financial projections for future operations). This business plan helped solidify the Orcas Food Co-op’s willingness to partner with us, as they want to work only with a sound nonprofit (instead of with a private owner who could sell the property at any time). The business plan also helped us understand the purchase terms that would allow our nonprofit to sustainably and responsibly own and oversee the property without the need for ongoing fundraising.
Based on that business plan and what we learned from the community about realistic fund-raising possibilities, we recently drew up and presented to the Masons a comprehensive letter of intent.
Sadly, we write to tell you that the Masons have decided that they and we are too far apart. Throughout the whole process, we have all valued open communication and an amicable relationship, and although we cannot reach a mutual agreement, we are grateful to the Masons for their time and effort.
At this point, the Masons have asked us to stop negotiations.
What does this mean for you, our supporters?
If you wrote us a check for the Due Diligence Fund, know that — although we conducted a substantial amount of due diligence and inspections — we paused just before several expensive reports; we also had much work donated. And so we did not cash any of the checks you sent us. If you would like your check returned, please let us know; otherwise, we will tear them up.
To all who donated or pledged, thank you. To those who sent encouraging notes, thank you. Your support so buoyed us through all the work we have done, and we were truly excited to keep working with you.
This project has been so sweet, as we all envisioned the store and the surrounding property continuing to be deeply embedded in the island community. We still believe that community ownership of the store, marina, warehouse, and WSF ferry contract is the best outcome possible. We appreciate so much the support we continue to receive from you. We will never be able to thank folks enough for their donations of time and expertise, for all the good wishes, and for all of the care that exists for Shaw as part of the whole island community.
Your support for this dream has kept us going through many long meetings, phone calls, and hours on the internet. Even though our efforts to this point have not succeeded, we hope you will help keep alive the vision of a community nonprofit owning a year-round store, owning the ferry contract, and maintaining the post office space, a community marina, community spaces in the warehouse, and living spaces with rents affordable to those who work in the store and on the ferry.
If anything happens to revive this project, we will let you know. (If you wish to be removed from our email list and not receive future communications, please let us know!)
We wish the Masons all good luck going forward, and we thank them for trying to make this all work.
Deeply moved by the community’s enthusiasm and support,
Jen, Julia, Learner, Anne, Brad
