Reporter Central Kitsap
Here kitty, kitty Volunteer Jeff Berger lends a hand at the Humane Society Page 8
FRIDAY, FEBRuary 22, 2013 | Vol. 28, No. 24 | www.CENTRALKITSAPREPORTER.com | 50¢
No buyer yet, but Kitsap Mall is for sale The place local people often go to shop is, itself, looking to be purchased
By Leslie Kelly lkelly@soundpublishing.com
Silverdale’s Kitsap Mall is for sale, it was announced recently by Real Estate Alert, an industry publication. But the buyer will probably be a large investment company and there’s nothing to indicate the mall is in any financial hardship. That’s the message from area commercial real estate experts who say the sale should not be looked at as a sign of a bad economy. “From time to time, a company will sell properties if they’re getting out of the retail market and opting to go into more office or multi-family properties instead,” said Blake Stedman, of Coast Real Estate Services in Everett. “That’s not uncommon. Or they could just be re-directing their equity elsewhere.” The Macerich partnership, headquartered in Santa Monica, Calif., listed the Kitsap Mall for sale in December along with Kitsap Place, an 87,000 square-foot community shop-
ping center, the Kitsap North Point, four free-standing retail buildings, and the 442,000 square-foot Cascade Mall in Burlington. Macerich, a real estate investment trust with Canadian investors, has owned the Kitsap Mall since 1999. According to real estate investments reports, the mall includes 715,000 square feet of retail space, is currently 97 percent leased and is valued at $79 million. Mall ownership does not include Sears and Kohl’s stores. Karen Maurer, spokeswoman for the Macerich partnership, would not comment on the mall being for sale or if there were any interested buyers. Local managers at the mall referred calls to the Macerich headquarters saying “everything’s coming out of Santa Monica.” Stedman said the most likely reason that Macerich is selling is changing investment goals. Indeed, Macerich’s 2011 annual report stated the company was changing philosophies from investing in malls with more common tenants to malls with higher end tenants. The Kitsap Mall was opened in 1985 in an area that was formerly a chicken farm. It was built by Winmar Co., which was the real estate arm of Safeco, a Seattle-based financial services com-
See MALL, A13
Wes Morrow/staff photo
Shoppers use the west entrance to the main building at the Kitsap Mall on Wednesday. Macerich, the Santa Monica, Calif. based partnership that owns the mall, is looking to sell.
In the business of banking blood Teachers upset about By WES MORROW wmorrow@soundpublishing.com
Every two seconds someone in the United States needs blood. More than 44,000 blood donations are needed every day to maintain the needed supply, according to the American Red Cross. Here in western Washington, the weight of gathering those donations falls squarely on the shoulders of Puget Sound Blood Center. The Blood Center has 11 donation centers in Western Washington, but only one on the west side of the Puget Sound. Puget Sound Blood Center’s Silverdale location stands alone on this side of the water, serving a geographic region as far reaching as Forks and Neah Bay. Elaine Raymond, the Silverdale center’s supervisor, happily accepts this geographic challenge. “We have a lot of blood donors up
Wes Morrow/Staff Photo
Roger Eagan elevates his arm after Carolyn Albro removes his needle.
merit pay program By WES MORROW wmorrow@soundpublishing.com
in the Sequim, Port Angeles area as well,” Raymond said. “It’s an amazing operation.” The Silverdale location opened in 1998. Before that, Puget Sound Blood Center would send over mobile units on the ferry to service the west Sound. In order to serve such a large area, Raymond’s team makes use of two of its own mobile units. At least one, and often both, of these mobile units is out collecting donations nearly every day. One of the units is a bloodmobile, a 40-foot bus that can be set up in any level parking lot. The other mobile unit coordinates with groups who want to host a blood drive, bringing all the necessary See BLOOD, A13
Teachers in Central Kitsap are putting pressure on the district administration to pull the plug on a possible new high school program. The program, called the National Math and Science Initiative, would be administered in the form of a grant to the Central Kitsap School District if it goes forward. Its goal is to increase the number of students participating in and passing Advanced Placement classes in English, Math and Science. NMSI would provide additional training and resources for teachers in these AP subjects, as well as additional resources for students, such
as one-on-one tutoring and open weekend study sessions. Along with these resources and development programs, NMSI would provide students, teachers and administrators with a financial incentive based on student success — what teachers have dubbed “merit pay.” Students would have either half or all of their test expenses ($87 per test) covered and would earn $100 for passing an AP test in one of the select subjects. Teachers could earn $1,000 for reaching their class goal and $100 for each individual student who passes the AP test. School administrators would See MERIT, A13