Boys & Girls Club property sale is final, to be converted to ball fields
By J. Jacob Edel
Mercer Island Reporter
It’s done. The Boys & Girls Club of King County announced this week that it had sold its current Mercer Island facility at the old East Seattle School on West Mercer Way to Islanders Michael and Billi Jo O’Brien.
The club sold the 2.87-acre property for $6 million. The non-profit organization plans to use those funds toward the construction of its proposed PEAK project, a new Rainier Valley facility and other clubs throughout the county.
According to a press release, the club plans to use $4.5 million of the sale proceeds for the PEAK project proposed at the high school campus. The Rainier Vista Boys & Girls Club will receive $1 million for its new facility and the remaining $500,000 will be placed into the organization’s capital reserve fund.
King County property records show the East Seattle property and current facility have an appraised value of $2.6 million. O’Brien said he plans to keep the existing gym, which was built in 1990, and spend about an additional $2 million for developing fields for Little League and T-ball.
The grass may be replaced with artificial turf or maintained. O’Brien said that this decision has not yet been made.
“When we are done, it will be a great facility for kids and families,” the Islander said.
Once finished, the new fields promised by O’Brien will also include a children’s play park. O’Brien said he wanted the property so his son and other Islander youth athletes would have more places to play.
“I was looking for property for a basketball court on the Island some years ago,” he said. “I happened to have some conversations about raising funds for PEAK when I heard the Boys & Girls Club was considering selling the land to developers.
“When I heard the facility was going to be sold, I thought, ‘Oh, great. That’s just one less field on the Island.’ If we lost that facility, then there’s nothing left on this side of the Island. Kids are always playing out there.”
O’Brien also said that Mercer Island needs more play fields for youth sports.
“My son is on a traveling baseball team and a traveling football team, and we go to all these other communities that have a lot of great parks.
“There’s not enough facilities here and the amount of parks on “There’s not enough facilities here and the amount of parks on Mercer Island for kids are just not proportionate to the values of the homes,” he said.
O’Brien is a former professional football player who played defensive back for the University of California at Berkeley while in college.
His plans for the property include demolishing the old school building, which opened its doors to Islander students in 1914 and closed in the 1980s. In 1984, the Mercer Island School District donated the land to the Boys and Girls Club.
The Boys & Girls Club is now awaiting a state environmental impact determination from the city and approval of a conditional use permit from the Planning Commission. The PEAK project must also receive subsequent development permits before the club constructs its proposed 48,000-square-foot facility. Including the proceeds from the sale, nearly $14 million has been raised toward the construction of PEAK.
The Boys & Girls Club will also be responsible for managing the new fields and existing gym as O’Brien will lease it to them for $1 per year.
Blair Rasmussen, president of the Island club chapter, said the sale was a rare opportunity to create more athletic facilities for Island youth. O’Brien said he hasn’t made a final decision on the new name of the fields but will probably name the park after his business, the O’Brien Auto Group.
“My core business has allowed me to do these types of community contributions,” he said.
As for the future of the property, O’Brien said he does not have any ideas what he might do with the land after the 10-year lease expires.
“Ideally we would keep it as a park, but we’ll determine that when we get there.”
