McMenamins still eyeing St. Edward State Park

A proposal to develop a $15 million brew pub and hotel and conference center at St. Edward State Park is still on the table despite a letter saying the concept had been withdrawn, a representative of Portland-based McMenamins said Tuesday.

"We have not officially pulled out of the St. Edward park," said Renee Rank, McMenamins marketing director. She said Mike McMenamin, one of the brothers who founded the business, had just told her over the phone that he knew nothing of the withdrawal.

McMenamins, which has developed more than 50 pubs, breweries, hotels and theaters in Oregon and Washington, had proposed leasing 20 acres at the park and developing the brew pub in the former seminary building.

Last Wednesday, a letter was sent to the Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission by the Kirkbride Group, of Lacey, Thurston County, which had worked in conjunction with McMenamins on the St. Edward proposal, saying the lease offer was being withdrawn.

Phone calls to Kirkbride were not returned Tuesday, and Rank could not explain why the letter was sent.

No one at McMenamins had seen the Kirkbride letter or was aware it had been written, Rank said.

The letter dated April 18 from K. Frank Kirkbride, company president, said it "appears to be in the best interest" of the state, the Kirkbride Group and McMenamins "to not pursue, at this time, the lease to improve and use portions of the St. Edward State Park."

Kirkbride's letter offered no reasons for dropping the proposal.

The letter came as a surprise not only to McMenamins but to the parks commission.

Bill Koss, manager of planning and research for the state Parks Commission, said he didn't know why Kirkbride or McMenamins would withdraw the proposal, after two years of going forward with the effort.

The situation also puzzled a community group opposing commercial development at the park.

Earlier Tuesday, when asked about the withdrawal, Ann Hurst, of Citizens for St. Edward State Park, said "I'm ambivalent about it. McMenamins might have been the least of many choices we didn't like."

After learning that McMenamins had not withdrawn the plan, she said:

"Wow! The citizen crew is confused enough."

The McMenamins proposal had called for investing more than $15 million in restoration and preservation of the historic structures and for improvements at the park, Kirkbride wrote in the letter.

The plan had called for a brew pub, 100-room hotel and conference center. Kirkbride did leave open the possibility of considering development at the park again, however.

Other proposals for the property have included developing an environmental-learning center and a veterans museum.

The Parks Commission is to meet Thursday in Quincy, Grant County, to vote on a park-management plan.

State Parks Director Rex Derr is expected to make the final decision on a plan some time after the meeting. Proposals for the park could be solicited once guidelines are established, and those proposals could include ideas for commercial use, Koss said.

Peyton Whitely: 206-464-2259 or pwhitely@seattletimes.com.