Prosecutor says Hawkins sale ends county deal

Whitman County Prosecutor Denis Tracy said this week the sale of the Hawkins property on the state line marks an end to the county’s commitment to participate in any development of the property. The Hawkins property, which at one time was projected as the site of a shopping mall on the Washington side of the state line, had included a county commitment to provide funds for infrastructure in the event the Boise-based Hawkins could land tenants for the site of approximately 200 acres.

The land was sold by two Hawkins companies at Boise to Sand Road Bucklers 2 LLC, of Pullman for $900,000, according to a real estate transfer affidavit filed Aug. 23 in the treasurer’s office.

Tracy said he doesn’t believe the county will have to take any formal action to formally end the county’s agreement with Hawkins.

The agreement at one time called for the county to provide $9.1 million for the project and later, with $5.9 million added at the start of 2012, to commit $15 million.

The county funds for the proposed project were expected to derive from sales tax revenue which was projected to be generated by retailers that located in the shopping mall.

Tracy said as far as he knows, the county has not been contacted since the sale.

“For all intents and purposes, it it is definitely down and out,” the prosecutor commented.

As county prosecutor, Tracy represented the county in civil negotiations with Hawkins.

The proposal sustained a major setback when the added $5.9 million commitment was dissolved at the start of 2014 because Hawkins failed to meet a requirement to get the project started within two years of signing the extra commitment.

The filing last month noted the sale was subject to the 2012 agreement between the county and Hawkins for the added $5.9 million, but that agreement was actually made moot by a court decision to dismiss because the startup deadline had passed. Tracy was one of three attorneys to sign off on the dismissal agreement.

That was the end of the suit filed by the Organization to Void Illegal Conduct which filed an injunction suit against the county after the 2012 agreement was signed.

Tracy said he believed the “subject to” provision in the sale agreement was listed because the property had formally linked to the real estate under the 2012 agreement.

Another factor in the agreement called for Gary Hawkins, head of the company, to cover any gap with his funds in the event the county could not cover its share of the costs when sales tax revenue fell short of projections. The prosecutor said he doesn’t see how that obligation would transfer to any new owner of the property.

The prosecutor added the former Hawkins site could eventually see commercial-type development, and he would like to see something there at some point in the future.