FIFE, Wash. — The owner of a luxury used car dealership off Interstate 5 says the city of Fife has been promising to pay him millions of dollars to build on his property, but over eight years, he hasn’t seen a dime.
Luke Wilson said I-5 Motors is in its 17th year of selling used luxury and performance cars. He learned that city of Fife officials were planning to improve the Port of Tacoma Road interchange by adding a second bridge connecting to 34th Avenue eight years ago.
“We first received a letter from the city of Fife back in 2011 saying they’re going to condemn our building, purchase our building and put an interchange on the top of it,” said Wilson.
Wilson said the project’s new on-ramp would run right through the showroom of his dealership. Wilson said city officials have repeatedly approached him and his co-owner to discuss a buy-out worth millions of dollars, but the money has never materialized.
“Starting about three years ago, the city would sit us down and tell us ‘We’re going to write you a check in the next month or two,’ and this has happened on probably about four or five occasions,” he said.
In the meantime, Wilson said, as construction has accelerated around him, the business has stalled.
He has had to lay off 50% of his staff in recent years.
Russ Blount, the Director of Public Works for the city of Fife apologized for the delays.
“I’m sorry,” Blount said. “The difficulty, of course, is that it takes a long time to plan a project, to get all the permits, to line up the funding.”
Blount said the project, which costs roughly $100 million, is being funded in two phases. Phase one, which is fully funded at $50 million, is currently underway and scheduled for completion in Spring 2020. Phase two, which involves I-5 Motors, is only partially funded, and still needs $30 million, some of which will be used to buy out Wilson.
“We’re hopeful that our project can continue to move forward, that the state will release funds to the city in the next month or two and we will be able to formalize an offer to I-5 Motors,” said Blount.
Blount said one wildcard in the project is the impact of I-976, the initiative that could reduce car tabs to $30 and interrupt millions of dollars in construction projects. Blount said it is unclear whether the initiative will stop the Port of Tacoma Road project.
Wilson said, despite Blount’s optimism, he continues to have doubts.
“It’s hard to really trust what they say when you’re being told that you’re going to be funded in a couple months or a month or next month on multiple occasions and then it doesn’t happen,” he said.