Leavenworth Buying Car Wash for $1.9 Mil. To Expand City Works

The city of Leavenworth is purchasing the former Cascade Quick Lube & Car Wash on US Highway 2 for $1.9 million.  

The city plans to use the property for needed expansion of its public works campus which sits next door. 

It'll also be used to add capacity to the city's wastewater treatment plant to meet future demand. 

The city is buying the property at 1451 US Highway 2 after going through a series of environmental studies to make sure the site was free of contamination.  

The city will enter into a purchase and sale agreement with Willkommen, LLC, to buy the property with an early August closing date. 

According to a release from the city, there was interest in acquiring the property in 2018. At that time, the city had the property appraised and conducted a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment (ESA).  

But the City Council chose not to purchase the property at that point, based on known contamination of a property owned by BNSF across US Highway 2, known as Glacier Park. 

Then, an assessment in 2023 concluded that the city would need to acquire the site in order to expand the public works campus and the wastewater treatment plant. 

However, concerns remained about Glacier Park, which was still going through cleanup efforts after being heavily impacted by petroleum contamination.  

In addition, there was concern that the car wash site itself was contaminated because of the use of chemicals common at car washes that contained polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). 

According to the release, the city asked for a Toxics Cleanup Integrated Planning Grant (IPG) from the Washington State Department of Ecology. 

The city was awarded a $200,000 grant from Ecology this year, and the money was used to perform a Phase II ESA and a hazardous materials survey of the old car wash site. 

The survey confirmed there was no asbestos in the building materials and the Phase II ESA site investigation found no transfer of contamination in the soil and groundwater at the property from the heavily contaminated Glacier Park across the street. 

Also, no contamination was found from chemicals used in the old car wash. 

According to the release from the city, funds from the grant will now be used to plan for the expansion of its public works campus and wastewater treatment plant. 

“The grant from the Department of Ecology was a key aspect of this acquisition,” said City Administrator Matthew Selby. “Knowing that the property is uncontaminated made the decision to acquire this strategic parcel an easy one for the City Council.”