City closes deal on 665 Peace Portal Drive property

A downtown waterfront lot will soon be built out, now that Bosporus Properties Inc. purchased the 665 Peace Portal Drive property from the city of Blaine for $300,000.

The deal closed January 31 after having its feasibility period extended several times. Blaine-based Bosporus Properties entered a purchase and sale agreement with the city in June 2021 after Nimbus Properties LLC rescinded its offer on the property that May. Blaine City Council extended the original feasibility period to September 20 and then again to November 30 because of difficulties developing on the west side of Peace Portal Drive.

City council granted a final feasibility period extension when given options at the December 13, 2021 meeting to either extend the feasibility period, terminate the contract and remarket the property or terminate the contract and not immediately market the property.

Bosporus Properties co-owner Hugh Wiebe said the property will likely become a residential rental building, but the developers are still finalizing what they will build.

“We’re still trying to decide what to do there,” Wiebe said. Wiebe founded natural food company Creation Foods, which employs 100 people in its two factories on Odell Road. He also owns A-Z Storage and Harbor Side Apartments in Blaine.

Wiebe said his business partner, Duane Cressman, has been a large push on the deal. Cressman co-founded Cressman Homes, a luxury home builder in Abbotsford, B.C.

The city spent $283,000 to demolish the building previously located at 665 Peace Portal Drive in 2019. To hasten economic development, the city offered Bosporus two 6-percent rebates along with the $300,000 offer. Bosporus will receive a rebate when it submits a mixed-use building permit within the next six months as well as when the city gives Bosporus an occupancy permit within one year of receiving the building permit.

The sale won’t impact the city’s 2022 budget because the city already accounted for its expected revenue, city manager Michael Jones said.

“It feels almost as good as when the derelict building came down but not as good as what I hope to feel when a new project goes up,” Jones said of the sale’s closing. “I’m looking forward to the future and what a new building will bring to downtown Blaine.”