UW campus plan draws ire

EVERETT – A business owner says he won’t sell his property to the state to accommodate tentative plans to build a new University of Washington campus. But no one has asked Alan Mizuta to sell the building that is surrounded on three sides by the proposed campus.

The co-owner of Built Corp., an industrial design firm, has hung a banner proclaiming “Not For Sale” on the side of his building on Pacific Avenue.

Mizuta said he just wants to make sure city officials and passers-by are aware of his reluctance to move after owning the 101-year-old brick building for 2 1/2 years and investing $1.5 million in renovations and restorations.

“We’re simply and clearly stating our intentions at this point are to stay here and not be part” of the proposed university development, Mizuta said.

Pat McClain, Everett’s governmental affairs director, says the city is aware of Mizuta’s feelings, but adds that no one has asked him to sell his property.

Everett is hoping to be the home of a new university campus after a state consultant ranked the site around Everett Station as the best of four Snohomish County locations. The state Legislature will take the consultant’s recommendations into account when the site for the new campus is chosen.

The nearly 27-acre site is bisected by Hill Avenue, on which several private businesses, including Mizuta’s and Everett Steel, operate.

The consultant believes the property is large enough to accommodate a 5,000-student campus with academic buildings, dormitories and parking garages.

Mizuta expects he and the other businesses on Hill Avenue would be the first ones asked to sell if the university ever decides to expand.

McClain said such concern is a bit premature. The state has not even picked a site.

“I don’t know if that day is two years, five years, 10 years or 30 years away,” he said.