(Image: Google Maps)

As we continue looking ahead to the first meetings of the new year – a West Seattle item of note is on the Tuesday agenda for the Northwest Seaport Alliance‘s managing members, aka the port commissioners from Seattle and Tacoma – a vote to authorize a new lease for the automated fuel station at Terminal 115, north of the West Marginal Way SW/Highland Park Way intersection. The agenda document says the original 5-year lease ended in 2019 but various factors delayed renegotiation of a new one, so the Associated Petroleum Products station’s been there on “holdover status” for almost two years. The agenda document says the two sides agreed to lease terms a year ago but:

“In March 2020, just prior to the Lease being brought to the April 2020 Managing Members meeting, APP requested a rental rate reduction due to their business being negatively impacted by the COVID 19 pandemic and WA State’s Stay at Home policy. NWSA Real Estate declined a rental rate reduction but did offer to delay moving forward with the new lease and new rental rate as we interpreted APP’s request as potentially falling within Governor Inslee’s April 16, 2020 Proclamation 20-19.1 as prohibiting rent increases for commercial tenants when tenants were ‘materially impacted by the COVID-19, . . . whether the business itself was not deemed essential pursuant to Proclamation 20-25 or otherwise lost staff or customers due to the COVID-19 outbreak.’ APP agreed to recommence negotiations in September 2020. Lease drafts were exchanged, and the parties agreed to a final Lease on December 11, 2020. …”

The document says that following an appraisal, the rent is going up from $8,307 a month to $12,065. APP also has the right to keep subleasing space on the site to Portside Coffee and Subway. The vote is part of Tuesday’s 11:30 am meeting; you can listen by calling 253-617-4257 (Id: 467 507 334#), or you can watch the videostream here.