Chicken and Sponge

Amazing Real Estate Deal: Turn-Key Business for Sale at Unbelievable Price!

Here we go again.  Beautiful Pelican, Alaska is the location of the Wheelwatch Lodge and Lounge, a business opportunity available at a now-unheard of price!

This is it--the Wheelwatch Lodge and Lounge, and also site of Pelican's only grocery store, Pel-Mart.

Owners are motivated to sell.  That would be me and Mick.  It's time.  We've looked at what we want and what is important to us.  We want to keep our daughters in school down in Oregon and we want to spend more time together.  Plus, we want to get back into commercial fishing.  So, given the current state of the economy and the current state of the real estate market, here's the deal:

The (firm) asking price for the Wheelwatch Lodge and Lounge is $295,000.00.  Yes, that's right--$295,000.00.  Down from the previous asking price of $645,000.  This is a commercial property and quite the business opportunity, just right for someone looking for a unique lifestyle experience and a business and built-in home to call their own.

The building is approximately 5000 square feet.  Downstairs is the bar, commercial kitchen, tiny grocery store, two restrooms and storage.  Upstairs houses three separate units.  We remodeled after moving to Oregon for the school years, making the upstairs at the Wheelwatch now less than ideal for our family of four humans, one of whom is autistic, and four pets, two of whom are bulldogs with apparently tiny bladders.  For the right person, though, the configuration upstairs is great. 

Our living quarters have that fabulous, uninterrupted view of Lisianski Inlet and those incredible mountains.  Large living/ dining area, snack bar with sink, good-sized bedroom and bathroom.  The "old" guest quarters are what we used most recently for employees and/ or additional family members.  That consists of two good-sized bedrooms, a huge bathroom, and a kitchenette.  The new guest quarters also look out the front of the building and is really very nice.  One locking bedroom and another open bedroom/ sitting room and a bathroom.  This guest suite contains four double beds and two futons, in addition to tables, lamps, and drapes.  All included in the price.

There is a large shop right across the boardwalk from the main building.  This provides a great deal of storage as well as freezers and a large cooler.  Next to the shop and right across from the dining room/ store is an empty lot.  An empty lot with that breath-taking view.  That lot is part of the deal, too.   When you own it, you needn't worry about someone building on it and blocking your view.

There is a box van that is thrown into this deal.  Ugly Truck is a life saver in Pelican.  We have used it for hauling freight and then bring it out on the state ferry.  This has saved us a great deal of money since we purchased the eyesore.

All the stock, equipment, furniture, fishing pictures, pool table, ALL OF IT, is included in the price of $295,000.

In addition to the business is a 26 foot Bayliner for sale for $12,000.  It was recently appraised for more than twice that price.

With all these bargains it would be natural for a potential buyer to wonder what is wrong with the place.  Honestly, nothing.  If Mick and I didn't have kids, we'd live up there full time.  It was a lifestyle that we loved and one of the most beautiful and unique places on earth.  Living in such a small community is quite the experience and a personal education, too. 

But our youngest is autistic and in order to meet her needs, we can't live in Pelican year-round.  We've been doing the long-distance marriage, but this year was harder than most because the kids, pets, and I didn't go up to Pelican for the summer, so we've spent much more time apart than in the past.  As the saying goes, that's a real drag.

So as I suggested before, we've done some soul-searching and have asked ourselves some serious questions.  What do we really want?  What is really important to us?

Sure, it hurts a little to think about selling the place for less than what we paid for it.  No doubt.  And a lot of Americans are having that same experience.  I'm sure the real estate markets will eventually rebound.  But do we want to wait that long?  We could, but no, we really don't want to.

We thought we'd sold this business this past spring and when that potential buyer backed out at the last minute without explanation or any attempt to work out WHATEVER the problem had been, we were stunned, placed in a  precarious financial position, and VERY disappointed.  We hadn't realized until that point just how much we'd looked forward to living the commercial fishing lifestyle again.

Because of this sour experience, we decided that we can't carry a contract with anyone.  There is just too much room for disaster to strike.  And we want to make a clean break and start a new life.  We can, however, lower our asking price to make it very inviting, one could even say IRRESISTIBLE to the right person.

This offer is on the table for only a very limited time.  If we don't sell it soon, we won't sell it.  We'll either hold on to it and keep working it and figure out how to address the challenges of pets and an autistic child, or we will wait until the real estate market recovers, and then sell it at a much higher price.

If you know anyone who might be interested in this intriguing proposition, this real estate steal, please direct them our way.  Serious buyers can email me at chickenandsponge@yahoo.com.  You can also visit www.wheelwatch.net to see more pictures and to get a feel for the place.

The float plane is one of the main modes of transportation in and out of Pelican.  There are regular flights.  Honestly, it's not bad at all.

The fishing around Pelican is unbelievable and there is much fun to be had.

Investing in the Future of Small Communities

 

Pelican City Hall, the Inlet Cafe, and the old fuel tanks.  What does the future hold for the city pf Pelican?

Correction:  this post was first published on July 22, 2009 and I made a big mistake.  I identified a former seafood processing plant as being Campbell River.  To make matters worse, I said it is a ghost town.  I'm sure the people of the THRIVING community of Campbell River would be surprised to read they're a ghost town, but I doubt if any of them actually reads Chicken and Sponge.  I have made corrections and the former community, the ghost town I meant to identify is Namu.  My apologies.

 

Having a bar is like having a window, or in this case an ear, to the world.  The local world, that is.  A bar can be a confessional or a bully pulpit, whether the bartender wants it to be or not.  Just add booze and listen to what pops out of people's mouths.

Yes, it is often tedious and uninteresting.  But an eavesdropper or captive audience i.e. the bartender can't help but find out what people think about all manner of things.

I am even beginning to get emails from people who have never been to Pelican, but are very interested in what's happening there.  The recent question I received was, "Why doesn't the city of Pelican purchase Pelican Seafoods?"

That is a question that many people ask and wonder about.  In my conversations with Mick, I've found out that most of the fishermen who have come into the Wheelwatch wonder that same thing and for the life of us, WE CAN'T UNDERSTAND WHY THE CITY WON'T!

It makes no sense.

Fishermen fear, and we, as business owners share this fear, that no other seafood company is going to come riding in to the rescue.  The plant is old and neglected and out-dated.  The location is superb.  Always has been.  The ice is the best.  But these are economic hard times and few companies want to proceed into a new venture.

The City and the citizens of Pelican are the only ones who have a compelling, vested interest in the future of Pelican Seafoods, which is the past, present, and (hopefully) future of Pelican.

In April 1994, I accompanied Mick from Ballard, Washington to Pelican in his dad's boat the F/V Mona Lee.  It was a 12 or 13 day trip and something I will never forget.  I won't forget HOW DISGUSTING I FELT GOING FOR DAYS AND DAYSWITHOUT A SHOWER!  I cleaned up nightly with a little bowl of water, but talk about inadequate.  When Mick shared, after reaching Ketchikan and showers, that he'd had to peel his scrotum off his leg, well, that was special.

But what I remember most from that trip were two different spots where we spent the night as we traveled through Canada.  The first was called, I believe, Namu.

Namu reminded me so much of an old plantation.  It was beautiful and green with little, tiny rolling hills ( so small that they might not even be considered hills--though they'd be a mountain range in Oklahoma), and empty, deserted building after empty, deserted building.  There were two young, very stoned guys who were working as caretakers and they let us into one of the houses to take a shower.  It had been the big boss's house.  It looked like the scene of an alien abduction.  There were still belongings everywhere--furniture, dishes, paintings...no personal pictures, though.

Namu had been a thriving little community.  Not an actual city or town, but definitely a community.  And it had been a seafood processing plant.  And it had failed.  So, it became a ghost town.

The next stop that permanently found a home in my head was called Butte Dale.  We couldn't go into Butte Dale, but had to anchor up, because the dock was so decrepit and dangerous.  Butte Dale, also a former seafood processing plant, is a ghost town.  A ghost town that looks like a ghost town.  It is hauntingly beautiful. And very disturbing.

Some of the people with voting power in Pelican, those who determine what gets discussed, what gets put on the agenda, what gets voted on, seem to think that THAT fate can't happen to Pelican.  I have no idea why they think so.  Common sense and simple observation tell most everyone else that total failure is a real threat to the future of Pelican.

Diversification?  People have tried it; some have succeeded on a small scale.  But the city depends on more revenue than what any of the present business owners can provide.  That's a fact.  And wake up, Pelicanites.  I know Pelican feels separate from the rest of the world.  That is definitely one of its most appealing aspects, but there is an economic crisis going on, not only in our country, but abroad as well.  Tourism is way down.  Though it will make some curmudgeonly types very smug, the ignoramuses, charters are way down, too.

Look at your population.  What is the median age?  What is going to draw younger people to the community to keep the life blood going?  What is going to keep the young people that you have?  Pelican has a number of citizens who are not in the best of health.  There are many people in their eighties and some approaching 90.  When a fifty year-old is one of the younger ones, you're in trouble.  And yes, I know, there are still school kids, but the younger adult crowd is mostly in its thirties now. 

There are new fuel tanks and a new water system being built.  That is all very nice, but that work won't last forever.  Where will the funds come from to pay for city services?  New boardwalk planks?  The other businesses, like ours, Rosie's, and the Inlet Cafe?  Don't count on it because our businesses have ALWAYS depended upon an influx of commercial fishermen.  There aren't enough locals to support the local businesses and the local economy.  Ignore that and you're ignoring reality. 

Is it fear or is it simple ignorance that keeps these people from taking charge of their futures?  Why don't they want to be in the driver's seat?  Are they afraid that individual people who currently reside in Pelican would do the actual organizing and running of the plant?  Because, of course, that is simple nonsense.

Experienced, knowledgeable people would have to be brought in.  Workers would be brought in.  The people who do feasibility studies would figure out the best course of action for the plant to take.  Mick and I love gourmet food and have eaten out a lot down here in the lower 48.  One thing that we have never seen ANYWHERE is pickled black cod.  With good marketing people, brought in from outside, pickled black cod could make the City of Pelican disgustingly rich.  Seriously.  Filthy, filthy rich!

Not the mayor, not the council members, not any one person, but the city.  And everyone would benefit.

Workers and workers with families could be encouraged to move there.  The person who wrote today's question pointed out to me that Tenakee had advertised in Craigslist for families.  The school was in danger of closing due to low enrollment.  You know what?  There were families who responded and moved to Tenakee!  Unemployment is so high right now!  People are sick of the cities.  People are sick of the traffic!  They're sick of the pollution and crowding and crime!  There are people who would just LOVE to pick up and move to Pelican--if there was a job for them.  If they even knew that is existed.

I would really love to hear from Pelicanites who are opposed to the idea of a City purchase of Pelican Seafoods.  I'd really like for someone to make sense of that for me.  Because it makes NO SENSE.  As for the Pelicanites who want to continue to live in Pelican, for those who never wanted it to change, SPEAK UP!  CAMPAIGN!  BE FORCEFUL!  Everyone used to say that they didn't want to see Pelican change and it changed anyway.  Here and now is the perfect opportunity to get some of that old flavor, that vitality, that fishing community spirit back.  No, Pelican will never be exactly what it was in the past.  Nothing is.  Life isn't static, but always in flux.  But Pelican is at a crucial crossroads.  It will either dwindle and die a tragic death OR it could thrive and become even more than it ever was before.  Courage.  Take courage.

That's the Way the Wheelwatch Rolls...

 

Not available at your local Pel-Mart store.  I'm just showing off some of my roses and baby's breath that are growing in our back yard.  This one is from Jackson and Perkins and is called the Disneyland Rose.  I think it's one of my favorites.  Another subject of debate for me and Mick, tea rose vs. floribunda.  I took advantage of his missing me and ended the debate quickly by adamantly stating, " I much prefer the floribundas, hands-down!"   Mick's response, "Oh, ok."  So the next puchase and planting of roses, which will be surrounding our vegetable garden, will be floribundas ( and I think some of those nice David Austen English roses--and a smattering of baby's breath).  Hoping for a successful summer for Pel-Mart and the Wheelwatch.

Talk about running a family business!  I feel like we're bi-coastal with Mick in Alaska and me in Oregon, but that would be the same coast line, of course.  Still, the distance...I may as well be in Nova Scotia and he in South Africa.

You need a little bit of background to "get" this story.  First, the long distance service in Alaska.  It's a bad joke.  The pay-the-most plan.  I don't even know how many cents per minute a person pays, but few do anymore and AT&T sure doesn't like it.  I thought huge companies were no longer allowed to have monopolies ever since the government broke up Ma Bell.  But what about when no one wants to move into an area and operate their business?  I'm not sure if that is exactly the case with the phone companies and Alaska, but it may be. 

Long distance service is so expensive in Alaska that everyone I know who fishes or lives in a city (but not the city of Pelican) uses a cell phone.  Regular long distance, i.e. AT&T is ludicrously expensive.  You could buy a liver on the black market for a liver transplant for less than what a year of long distance service through AT&T would cost you.  Which may be why most Pelicanites use calling cards.  Some may be saving up for that liver transplant.

There is another option.  One can actually use a cell phone from Pelican.  But given the proliferation of golf carts in recent years, few people are willing to walk to the top of the Dump Hill to make a call.  But they could.  You can actually get cell phone service from that location.  But I guess it isn't too practical, particularly when trying to do business.  So a calling card it is.  Or would be.

But I couldn't find a card for Mick that would give him a decent amount of in-state minutes.  Non-AT&T cards are impossible to find in Juneau and if you do find one, it usually won't let you re-charge your minutes.  If anyone knows differently, please clue us in.  I'm not sure why this situation exists, but I have my own conspiracy theory.  I'll spare you today, though.  So I ended up getting Mick an AT&T calling card and out of 240 minutes, only 30 of those were in-state minutes.

So then I found a non-AT&T calling card for Mick that had an adequate amount of in-state minutes for him to use.  And of course, it doesn't really work.  Oh, he can call people in state, but he and the other party get an impossible echo, and there is a really annoying delay, as if he was calling from Afghanistan.  Basically, this card with adequate minutes is rendered useless in the state of Alaska.  Fortunately it works just fine for calling out of state.  Which is why I have remained quite involved in our family business.  When Mick needs to talk to someone at the D.E.C. or anyone else in the state of Alaska, he calls me first.  Then I call the party he needs to speak with, briefly (or not) explain our phone dilemma and ask them to call Mick back.  Fortunately, most do.

We do it this way because down here in Oregon, I get unlimited long distance for a flat rate of $20 a month.  So our conversations go like this:

me:  Hello?

Mick:  Good morning.

me:  Oh, hi.

Mick:  Call me right back.

me:  sure.

Mick:  Bye.

me:  [click...redial...]

And then business begins.  Well, ok, most of the time we just talk.  Family stuff, marital stuff, what's happening at either end, a little gossip if there is any...but then there is business.

Because there isn't a bank in Pelican and we were unhappy with our Merchant Services account that we'd previously had, we decided to move our business banking and Merchant Services to our bank in Dallas, and that way, at least one of us had contact with real, live people and didn't have to talk through a delay and an echo to get anything done. We like our little bank.  If we've learned anything it is to stay away from anyone who's too big, all those entities in the news who were considered too big to allow them to fail.  Small and personal works best. So here is our business routine:

Mick calls me then I call him back.  Usually he places an order with Costco, so he gives me all the item numbers and amounts, then I plug in the debit and membership numbers and shipping info.  If they have any questions, I give them Mick's number (because people can call in just fine, it's only Mick who can't really call out when it's an in-state number).  They should call with questions, but they don't.  And I'm getting a little ahead of myself.  I  write in whether or not the order is to be shipped U.S.P.S. or Alaska Seaplane Service, depending on whether the order is dry goods or perishable.  Then I fax it to Juneau Costco.  Oh, Mick wouldn't have any trouble faxing anything.  Except that I have everything and he has nothing.  Remember I said that I had tools of all kinds, two chain saws, etc.?  Well, I also have ALL the office equipment, including the fax machine.  So I fax in the orders.

As always, ordering food from Costco is a bit of an adventure, kind of like letting an eight year-old pack your suitcase for a trip through the Amazon.  Because we are stocking Pel-Mart from Costco, we're never quite sure what we're getting until it gets to Mick, which is why it would be nice if they'd call with questions.  For example:  Mick wanted ten one-pound blocks of butter.  That is what I wrote.  The Costco catalog wasn't really clear on how the butter was packaged, but there were multiple choices.  So I wrote in, no item number, 10 1-pound packages of butter.  Mick received 10 packages of butter, but they were four 1-pound packages.  Maybe this is confusing.  What I'm saying is, Mick now has 40 pounds of butter instead of 10.  This is ok, just a bit startling when unpacking the boxes and the butter never seems to end.  So we won't be ordering butter for awhile.

Mick's doing special orders for people, too.  He's trying to round up hangers and a shower curtain for someone right now, but he's also trying to keep fresh fruit in stock, too.  I was very sorry to hear that a much-admired friend of ours from Phonograph has been diagnosed with M.S.  All she really feels like eating is fresh fruit, grapes in particular, so Mick is doing his best to keep the grapes coming.  Not always easy when freight gets last priority on the plane, but honestly, when we're flying, we wouldn't want to be bumped for a cantaloupe either.  So we understand the reasoning behind passengers, baggage, mail, then freight.

Mick's got a suggestion list next to the cash register.  So far, no one has suggested that he go straight to hell--on paper, at least.  He has received requests for margarine, after going through a butter vs. margarine debate with me when I tried to tell him that he needed to carry both.  Now he will.  Also Kraft Mac n Cheese has been requested.  Honestly, I don't know why we hadn't thought of this one in the first place, except that we are one of the few households I know with kids who never eat it.  So mac n cheese is on the way.  A little surprisingly, and just a little, bread has been a huge hit.  Back when the old store was open, bread was popular, too.  But they bought such large quantities and froze it, that it was almost never soft, but dried out from the beginning.  Yes, people love their bread.

Most popular item of all?  This will be no surprise to anyone living in Alaska.  It may be surprising to those who reside outside that state.  Lettuce?  Apples?  Good tomatoes?  Of course not.  It's cigarettes.  And Pel-Mart is the only place in Pelican to get them.  The last time Mick had a Costco order arrive, he looked like the Pied Piper, a line of smokers trailing him all the way back up the boardwalk from the post office. Nicotine-addicted crazies vibrating and salivating with their need.  He'd sold close to half his supply before he'd been able to unload his boxes and re-stock his shelves.  He had to turn around and order more right away.  Keep the masses happy.

My phone rang at 7:30 this morning.

me:  What are you doing calling this early?  [I know, not the most polite way to answer the phone, but I knew it has Mick].

Mick:  I was just calling to let you know that I won't be home until this afternoon, in case you tried to call.

me:  What's up?

Mick:  Oh, Jon and I are just going up the beach to work up some firewood and I don't think we'll be back until this afternoon.  There's a lot of it.

me: Oh, ok.  Call me when you get back and then I'll call you--well, you know the routine by now.

Mick:  Ok.  Bye, hon.

me:  Bye.  Have fun.

I hung up feeling positively dumb-founded.  Almost fifteen years of marriage, years of feeling aggravated when I'd "lose" Mick while in Pelican, he calls to tell me what he's doing?  I used to never understand how it was possible to lose someone in a town that consists of a half-mile of boardwalk, but I would.  He'd always go off with our good friend Jon and never say a word. 

Now I'm about 1500 miles and one time zone away and he calls me at 7:30 in the morning to let me know what he's up to and where he's going?  Well, no complaints from me.  I hope it lasts.  Of course, I didn't ask if he was calling me as my considerate husband or if he was calling me as a business partner.  Some questions are better left unasked.