What’s next for Terry Emmert in Aberdeen?

Editor’s note: This is the second in a two-part series. Oregon-based businessman and property investor Terry Emmert owns 57 properties in Grays Harbor County. Throughout Hoquiam and Aberdeen, Rent or Lease EMMERT INTERNATIONAL signs adorn buildings of all types. However, Emmert’s vision for revitalizing the U.S. Highway 101 corridor has largely remained a mystery. Part 2 looks at the impact of the cancellation of FEMA’s BRIC grant program on local economic development, Emmert’s efforts to re-open the D&R Theatre, downtown Aberdeen revitalization plans, and the fallout from the closing of the Shoppes at Riverside in South Aberdeen.

North Shore Levee

Many in the Grays Harbor area believe the North Shore levee projects are the key to opening up economic development in the region.

However, the Trump administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) cancellation of the $84 million Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grant program to fund the North Shore levee project has cast a pall over the completion of flood relief efforts, leaving many to continue to pay higher costs for flood insurance and renovations.

At the Greater Grays Harbor, Inc. Lunch with the Mayors event on March 25, Aberdeen City Administrator Ruth Clemens and Hoquiam Mayor Ben Winkelman talked about the challenges with the floodplain designation and property renovation.

“Living in the floodplain requires a tremendous lift from homeowners to get their homes up to compliance which could mean raising a home up to seven feet,” Clemens said. “We are working with our legislators right now to get that funding gap met.”

Mayor Winkelman said, “You can see it already in the city of Hoquiam, people are purchasing homes and they’re kind of waiting for that levee project so they know it’s going to be complete before those developers can really make improvements on not only the residential properties but the commercial properties.”

According to real estate agent David Quigg, the completion of the levee project is just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to economic development in the region, especially on the residential side.

“During COVID when there was a larger influx of cash into the community, my wife and I sell 90% residential, from a residential point of view, the ability of people to fix up these extremely derelict properties was hindered because you would have to raise above the floodplain, so for those really low-end, 100% renovation homes it was a hindrance to get those fixed up,” Quigg said. “For most of the homes, those people weren’t using FEMA flood insurance to start with. One thing that’s bothering me a little bit, is a few people are using the levee as an excuse or saying things are going to get extremely better once the levee is fixed. I think it’ll be just one piece, I don’t think it’s a silver bullet to fixing the economy here in the community.”

Quigg’s words have turned out to be prophetic when the $84 million in federal grant money for the levees was clawed back. The cities of Aberdeen and Hoquiam issued a joint press release on April 17 and vowed to get the levees built.

“Despite this setback, we remain committed to pursuing funding avenues to protect residents and infrastructure from flooding,” said Aberdeen’s Clemens. “Our goal still remains to get levees built for our communities, so we will continue to move forward to get a shovel-ready project for the time when FEMA’s new program comes out — we’ll be ready.”

“Building these levee projects has been our number one priority for the past 10 years to provide our citizens with critical flood protection, relief from burdensome flood zone regulations and reprieve from high flood insurance premiums,” said Hoquiam City Administrator Brian Shay. “There is no infrastructure project more vital to our community’s economic prosperity than the Aberdeen-Hoquiam Flood Protection Project and we are not giving up until these projects are at the finish line.”

According to Emmert, who says he has purchased property multiple ways, 1031 exchanges, financed, cash, etc., the FEMA 50% rule, flood insurance requirements, and the age and the condition of the buildings in the region have hindered what he wants to do.

“Sometimes rules need to be changed, and do I think FEMA knows what they’re doing? Hell no,” Emmert said. “I’m hopeful the Trump administration will find out how incompetent they are, and maybe change some of these rules. … We need to bring it back and keep our buildings so we don’t turn into a city of glass and steel with no character and no history.”

Vacant buildings

Many of the properties in question are deteriorating due to lack of occupancy and upkeep. In early 2024, the Becker Building, which Emmert purchased in 2019, was found to be in disrepair. Several issues, including safety concerns, were identified during a vacant building inspection, many of which have since been addressed according to Clemens.

“He has made some outside improvements, because that’s what we’re doing with all our vacant buildings, we’re really asking them to focus on the envelope at this point,” Clemens said. “And then code compliance is working with the team to focus on other parts of it.”

Vacant commercial buildings were identified as a major problem in Aberdeen some time ago and as of October 2024, of the 41 vacant commercial buildings in downtown Aberdeen, 19 are registered with the vacant building program that launched in October of 2023. Another 19 were in progress of being registered and three were non-compliant. Of the 41 buildings, 16 of them sit along Wishkah Street, eight are on Heron Street, six are on Market Street, four are on State Street, and the last seven vacancies are divided between 1st Street, F, G, K, I, Park and Broadway streets. The vacant building program is designed to hold property owners accountable.

Aberdeen’s Community Director Lisa Scott said that Emmert is actively complying with the auspices of the vacant building program.

“We’re working with him on all the buildings that he has, we created a vacant building program for the downtown area,” Scott said. “We’ve put a list together and we’ve got most of our buildings that have complied with either registering them, or putting businesses in, or fixing them up. We started with that and we’ve been working down the list of stuff with Mr. Emmert’s group. When the city implemented the vacant building program, that’s when we started getting compliance from not just Mr. Emmert but a lot of the building owners downtown as well.”

Scott added that Emmert is one of the few downtown property owners that moves with any alacrity when it comes to responding to issues.

“He’s got a few of them that are vacant, but he’s working on it, they’re working on trying to fill them up, they’re putting windows in and trying to maintain the buildings. We take one at a time. I believe they’re waiting for some structural analysis work on half of the building next to Mac’s Card Room. They tore down the one building behind Safeway we had on the abatement list. They’ve been really compliant in getting code violations and vacant buildings taken care of, they’re one of the few very quick to jump and take care of the issues. They’ve been great to work with. They’re very responsive. Since we started the vacant building program, that’s what lit the fire. They do own a few buildings, it’s just going to take some time. They’ve been great.”

According to Clemens, Emmert’s efforts have been both outwardly visible and behind the scenes.

“He’s torn down some derelict buildings. He and his team have submitted permits, and they are moving forward with improvements to the properties that they own here in Aberdeen,” said Clemens. “We have seen significant movement in what they have done and the upgrades and really trying to address the issues with their buildings, especially in the last year. I think he’s hired some key players and some key team members that have been able to get them closer to their goals, whatever those goals are. With this new team he has around him, I think they have shown more movement toward improving the properties they have than the community has seen since (he came).

“They have a timeline they’ve submitted. We require all of the property owners who have vacant buildings that have issues that need to be addressed, we have them provide us a timeline of when they are going to get those properties in compliance. They have submitted all of their timelines and when they plan to get things done. They’re headed in the right direction. In the last year, with the new team he has around him, he has made more progress in this time period than he has since 2019 … improving the buildings, making actual changes and having positive impacts on our downtown core.”

Clemens is hopeful and optimistic regarding efforts to revitalize downtown Aberdeen, especially when it comes to Emmert’s involvement.

“We’re just trying to get our downtown to a place where we can invite more businesses, where we can invite more commercial activity and where we can create an environment for people to want to be downtown, shop downtown, play downtown, and to visit. That’s what we’re trying to do,” Clemens said. “We recognize that Terry Emmert and Emmert International are a big part of that and that’s why we’re been working with them and they’ve been very responsive, especially in the last year, year-and-a-half.”

Clemens discussed the vacant building program at the Lunch with the Mayors event.

“One of the more important things that we’ve created is a vacant building program that’s been successful, we’re received over a 90% compliance rate with property owners who are now investing in their buildings,” Clemens said. “We’ve worked with different companies that might be interested in purchasing the buildings, we’re doing all that we can to change our downtown core.”

Despite renewed efforts in Aberdeen, however, Emmert still owns several vacant buildings in and around Grays Harbor. From Grays Harbor County Commissioner Vickie Raines’ perspective, there are more questions than answers and she takes umbrage with Emmert’s business approach.

“I have spoken to Jerry Reeves a few times, and (Emmert’s project coordinator) Don Holmes, I’ve had to reach out to Don a couple of times regarding the property in Ocean Shores (Sea Breeze Trading Company) because it had some squatters in there. It’s a shame to see (it) in shambles. It’s in my District, I see it all the time,” Raines said. “I don’t agree with the manner in which he advertises the properties for lease. Some of the properties that he advertised were involved in a fire and didn’t have a ceiling in them and it says, ‘For Rent or Lease Call Emmert …’ They’re not even habitable. I’ve heard he’s interested in improving some of those properties, and really making a positive presence in Grays Harbor. I hope that’s true. I just haven’t seen anything to that effect yet.”

With regard to the former Sea Breeze Trading Company at Hogans Corner specifically, efforts have been made to clean up in and around the property with visible improvement. The location was recently leased to PeckWeld, a Spanaway-based company that deals in heavy industrial equipment. PeckWeld has put substantial work into the property.

After initially purchasing the Sea Breeze Trading Post, Emmert said he was led to believe that a rental agreement was in place.

“I was told we had a renter, I have never received a dime, Mr. Reeves moved the people in, never received a dime, they tore the crap out of the place to put it very bluntly, they moved in junk,” Emmert said. “I told Jerry they’re going to pay, and the guy said ‘Mr. Reeves and I are taking care of it.’ I’ve never received a dime.”

Back in Aberdeen, according to Scott, whenever a building is left vacant, the situation can and will invite problems, hence the creation of the vacant building program that applies to all downtown property owners.

“When you have vacant buildings, when you don’t have active management, and this goes in general for all vacant buildings, there are things that can go on inside of a building that if you’re not looking at your building on a daily basis, that you might have some problems with. People will find their way into something,” Scott said. “If you’re not there on a daily basis monitoring your property you’re not going to know that, nobody is going to know that until you go in. It’s not just Mr. Emmert, it’s all of the vacant buildings. That’s what precipitated leadership to create a vacant building program. We try to encourage the building owners to start taking pride of ownership.”

Scott said that Aberdeen is the commercial hub for Grays Harbor County and that the city will continue to maintain that distinction.

“You’ve got to find your niche markets. I think we will become a bedroom community for the beaches as they continue to expand, because the workforces that are going to be needed for Seabrook, Ocean Shores and Westport are going to need a place to stay,” Scott said. “I see Aberdeen as the place where people are going to shop and live. We’re going to have events and restaurants and shops hopefully to take care of our locals, I think that will fill in as we go.”

Scoops

Raines, however, indicated frustration with the lack of movement or clear vision for the properties Emmert owns, including iconic historic buildings.

“There are several people upset that they demolished Scoops (Ice Cream and Coffee), which used to be an old fuel station. He could have sold that. I know he has received offers on the D&R Theatre, I know he has and it just sits there vacant,” Raines said. “At some point down the road, is he going to sell those and if so, will they be of any value at that time? That’s what bothers me. I love free enterprise, I love businesses, I support business and growth, I don’t support people who gobble up properties just to hold on to them for a tax benefit and have them sit and deteriorate.”

With regards to Scoops in particular, Emmert purchased the property from the late John Yonich’s estate for $100,000. The street level building was razed despite the lack of an abatement order from the city of Aberdeen. Emmert also mentioned unrealized plans for the former Amore restaurant at 116 W. Heron Street.

“We had a building we bought, that was the old Scoops, and the building next door. Our original intention was to keep Scoops and the restaurant Amore, which was in good shape, but that building got completely destroyed,” Emmert said. “The Realtor lined up a tenant for it, Mr. Reeves, and the next thing I see a building that’s ready to operate that didn’t need any repairs is completely destroyed. Everything is ripped out of it, the kitchen stuff is ripped out, all the seating is ripped out, everything is taken. That thing was the only building that we got that was shovel ready, by that I mean it was ready to rent.”

According to the Washington State Department of Ecology, the underground gasoline and waste oil storage tanks on the Scoops property, once a Shell gas station at 123 W. Heron Street, have not been decommissioned. The three tanks were installed in the mid-1980s. During a 2006 limited soil and groundwater investigation, samples showed soil and groundwater contamination.

As of Feb. 11, 2008, one of Ecology’s Underground Storage Tank Inspectors testified in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Western Washington at Tacoma docket 08-40026 the following:

Ecology issued an enforcement order to decommission the tanks, and issued a penalty for Underground Storage Tank violations ($21,965) on June 2, 2003.

The court granted Ecology access to remove the remaining product from one of the tanks on June 29, 2005. (Ecology) successfully removed 250 gallons of petroleum product from a waste oil tank. However, when (they) gauged (measured) the tanks after, (they) found there’s still a small mixture of gasoline and water remaining in the tank.

The Department of Ecology added, “Ideally, a new owner of the property would properly decommission the tanks, and clean up the contamination. If a development project is planned, and we receive notice to review the project, we would notify the project proponent (property owner, or whatever business name it’s under) that there are tanks to decommission and that contamination is present.”

The last Scoops official Facebook post was on Oct. 12, 2019, and the website domain name scoopsicecreamandcoffee.com is not currently owned by anyone.

The late Todd Robinson bought the property in 2009 from Frank Burress with Yonich assuming ownership in August 2014. Aberdeen Eateries LLC, of which John, Ashley, Lindsey, Kyle and Christine Yonich were listed as governing members, with John and Christine listed as managers, filed for bankruptcy in December 2014. Yonich also owned and operated a Scoops ice cream parlor and Backstage Espresso coffee shop as part of the D&R Theatre property.

The D&R Theatre

The once popular D&R Theatre (along with its associated event center) formerly owned by the late John Yonich, is a project Emmert’s team is actively working on. Yonich, who passed away in 2021, bought the D&R Theatre, remodeled and reopened it in 2009. The venue closed in 2014 and has been in use sparingly since.

“The D&R Theatre will be opening soon, we’ve spent the last (several) months doing the event center, unfortunately we had a lot of misinformation the buildings were okay, there were no problems, which we found out is not true,” said Emmert. “We are working on them one at a time to make them an asset to the community.”

A few weeks ago, a new movie screen was delivered to the venue. According to Emmert’s team, the D&R Theatre is slated to open in time for World Music Day on June 21. The associated event center on the corner of South I and East Heron Street is already open for business.

World Music Day is celebrated annually on June 21, and the past two years, numerous establishments throughout Aberdeen hosted World Music Day festivities. It has become a major cultural happening for the city and Grays Harbor County.

“It’s very exciting and heartwarming to see that theater reopen and hopefully make that the center point of downtown by bringing in quality acts, good movies, something that serves all ages,” Emmert said in early May. “Seeing this theater opened back up and revitalizing and bringing the community together will be extremely exciting. You’re working with your fellow businesses in the community, it’s good for everybody.”

Quigg said, “I think a lot of that literally has to do with manpower. The management it takes to renovate one historic building is mind-boggling. Unless you have a team of people including general contractors and all the subs, you could work on multiple buildings, but that would take hundreds of employees.”

In 2020, David Haerle of The Daily World, wrote, “Yonich has formed a 501(c)(3) nonprofit titled Aberdeen Arts & Entertainment, which will be run by a board of directors.” The article also stated the D&R hosted 110 shows during a 10-year span during Yonich’s tenure as owner. However, it does not appear that the nonprofit organization completed the 501(c)(3) process or was ever active.

The corner coffee shop, Nirvana Coffee, closed at the end of February 2024. NIrvana Coffee, which opened in 2022, often hosted intimate performances by singer/songwriters and other events, and featured the photography of renowned rock and roll photographer Darrell Westmoreland.

In March 2024, Nirvana Coffee owner Amy Mathews Smith told The Daily World, “When I opened in October (2022), my first month, I was told there would be a show the same month, and then one to two shows a month was what the plan was. So that has never come to fruition. Then, talks of ‘No, we’re not doing shows.’ That was a big factor of me opening in here because I knew coffee wasn’t going to pay the bills. But having an influx of 1,100 people (in the theater.) And just the publicity of the D&R opening and the visibility of it, all of it all together is what makes the difference. It changed the look of my business completely. It would have been a completely different business in here if there were shows in here.”

Mathews Smith cited other issues such as personal safety concerns, staffing, broken water pipes at the attached D&R Theatre and a lack of neighborhood foot traffic.

The idea now is to bring movies and concerts back to the D&R Theatre and other happenings to the event center.

“I met Terry through the late John Yonich about August of 2020. Terry held great visionary ideas of Aberdeen, especially around our music history,” said Wil Russoul, executive director of the Downtown Aberdeen Association. “While Terry is a very busy man, he has invited me to many of his personal functions and his homes to include helping form a pilot project in the Becker Building for a year where we ran an artist co-op with 17 artists. Today we are making considerations about World Music Day.”

Emmert had everything to do with a short-lived live music venue called The Loading Dock by offering inexpensive rent to Larry Cowles and Justin Kautzman at the Becker Building, an extension of the co-op Russoul mentioned.

“I originally rented it for a place for my band to rehearse,” Cowles said in May 2023. “He’s trying to build downtown up and move out from there. So I know a lot of people are down on the guy because he’s a rich white guy buying a bunch of stuff, but he’s been good to me.”

By early 2024, The Loading Dock, as it was, was no more.

“It got bigger than we were prepared to deal with,” Cowles said in an April 2024 interview with The Daily World. “Emmert himself has been great. I haven’t had any issues with him.”

Shoppes at Riverside fallout

Proprietors of stores at the Shoppes at Riverside were given roughly two months to clear out their inventory and find somewhere else to put it when the mall closed in February 2021 due to structural issues caused by storm damage. However, mall owner Coming Attractions Theatres was able to keep Extreme Fun Center open until August 2024.

Tracy Towns, the proprietor of A Bit of Everything in Aberdeen, has been operating at her current location at 116 E Heron Street since July 2021 and without a lease since June 2024. She pays her $1,200 monthly rent to “Emmert Development.” Towns opened up shop at the 3,000-square-foot space after she lost her situation at the Shoppes at Riverside for which she was paying $300 per month for a 585-square-foot store.

“I haven’t had a lease since the end of June ‘24, I finally got a hold of whoever does the maintenance and they’ve been fixing things. I still kind of need heaters but that’s another whole issue. I haven’t had contact with any of them, I’ve never met Terry (Emmert), I’ve been here almost four years,” Towns said. “A bunch of us were looking at the old carpet store (Moore’s Interiors at 201 S. Broadway St.), but he was gonna want, what we heard through the grapevine, was $2 a square foot, but that was a 28,000-square-foot building if I remember correctly. It wouldn’t have been feasible for everybody to open up their own little shop. I looked in Hoquiam and the way I wanted to divide it and the way they wanted to divide were two different things.”

Towns, whose original lease agreement was with the late Yonich, added that the Heron Street location has worked out well for her and more than 60 consignment sellers and shelf and booth renters who help pay the rent, including several who had stores at the Shoppes at Riverside.

Gail Anderson, the proprietor of All That Glitters, rents the building at 101 E. Heron Street from Emmert. The location was once home to Furniture World NW Showcase.

“When we were forced out of the mall I couldn’t find a space big enough that I could afford. First I moved over to Wishkah in the old beauty college which was a disaster,” Anderson said. “Then a couple gals worked with Jerry (Reeves) and I was rented this space. I get a really good deal though I have no heat and no plumbing.”

Anderson added she believes there are plans to fix the heat and the plumbing. She also said the location has had some trouble attracting customers. The Seattle-native, who has been in business for more than 50 years, said she also does not have a current signed lease at present. She is renting a floor plan-challenged 6,000-square-foot space similar in size to a more open floor plan at her Shoppes at Riverside location.

According to an article published in The Daily World in 2021, the owner of Tectonic Comics, Michelle Conrad, wanted to move into the Market Place building located at 822 E. Wishkah Street and was prepared to pay up to $2,000 a month in rent for 5,000 square feet of retail space. She was told rent would cost $4,000-$5,000 a month. In September 2021, Conrad bought the VFW building at 105 E. Heron Street for $325,000 instead.

However, securing a loan to purchase property on a FEMA floodplain comes with required flood insurance and its associated costs. The stipulation does not affect a borrower’s qualifications, but they must prove that they have the ability to secure flood insurance as part of the purchase process. The cost for commercial flood insurance can be substantially higher than residential and that cost is quoted on a case-by-case basis. Property values, at least for single-family homes, tend to be lower in the flood zone.

If a property owner owns a building (residential or commercial) outright, they are not required to carry flood insurance, but may choose to. In most cases, renter’s flood insurance does not cover the building, just the trappings of the renter’s business.

Yet, a property owner may elect to include flood insurance stipulations in the lease agreement. Property owners who choose not to carry flood insurance do so at their own risk. Conventional wisdom says that if and when the North Shore levee project is complete and the floodplain map changes for the better, the cost and the requirement for flood insurance will drop to next to zero leading to an increase in property values.

Emmert has been more visible in recent months, attending the United Way Black and White Gala in Ocean Shores back in January, and sponsoring renowned anti-drug activist and documentarian Michael DeLeon’s visit to Aberdeen High School in late February and accompanying DeLeon to the Aberdeen City Council meeting that same evening. Emmert also sponsored DeLeon’s recent presentations at Hoquiam and Taholah high schools.

Quigg said that he has never understood why Emmert has gotten such a bad rap in the Grays Harbor community, but he also gets the community’s frustration with the lack of progress.

“I’ve been a little taken aback by the negative publicity Terry has received from very early on,” Quigg said. “These derelict buildings have been in our community for 20 to 30 years and nobody has ever complained before. Because we do have less expensive real estate, I feel that we’ve had quite a few promises and prayers over the years; after getting slapped down so many times with somewhat empty promises it’s frustrating for our community.”

Raines went so far as to suggest that Emmert should publicly explain his plan and goals to the people of Grays Harbor. She’d like to see Emmert use his wealth and influence to become an active participant and an asset in the community.

“Why don’t you do an Op/Ed Terry Emmert? Why don’t you send a notice and notify the people what your intentions are, and let those who are interested in those properties or supporting you or are willing to support you get behind you and make a difference in Grays Harbor?” Raines said. “That’s what I would do, but he’s non-responsive in a lot of ways. I’d like to have some of the businesses that are in the county taken care of. If you have received benefits for the Opportunity Zones and the tax breaks that accompany (them), can you return some of that to the community and be part of the community versus gobbling up parcels and sitting on them? That’s my question. Can we partner together to come up with some solutions? He’s benefiting off of these properties in the tax situation then turns around and is a demise to the city. I would like to know as a county commissioner what his intentions are.”

Raines said that she previously dealt with Reeves who passed her off to Holmes last summer. She indicated that she was unaware of Holmes’ background as a convicted felon, yet he has been responsive to her inquiries.

“I have spoken to Don Holmes several times and didn’t know or wasn’t aware of his background. That doesn’t reflect well on Terry Emmert, on his staff or his team to have that type of background,” Raines said. “I will say this, Don has been very responsive to me, he’s gotten back to me each time I’ve called him.”

As far as Raines is concerned, she wants to understand Emmert’s vision and see his plans come to fruition.

“When Terry first came to town, the squawk was he was a very polished businessman. He has financial backing and he’s going to be the savior for a lot of things and it just went to hell in a handbasket. I love Grays Harbor. I love working with people and I have not seen Terry Emmert work with people. It’s sad,” Raines said. “At the gala it was commented that he’s got some great plans, he’s going to do some great things in Grays Harbor. I hope that’s true. I think people have waited for a long time. Why not make yourself a respected developer/business owner/entrepreneur, whatever you want to call yourself, and work with the communities you’ve bought all these properties in instead of just closing up shop?”

And that is the $16 million question.