Cashmere To Get Dollar General Store

The community of Cashmere will soon be welcoming a well-known retail chain where residents and visitors can shop.

On Tuesday, the Chelan-Douglas Regional Port Authority (Port) announced the sale of two parcels (specifically, Parcels C and E) within the Cashmere Mill District site to NNN Development of St. George, Utah.

The Port's Director of Economic Development & Capital Projects, Stacie de Mestre, tells KPQ News the 1.87 acres were sold for $310,000 and NNN plans to open a Dollar General store at the location on the north side of Sunset Highway.

"The purchase and sale agreement was signed earlier this week," explains de Mestre. "The developer has a feasibility period where they'll go through and see if they can truly build from not just a permitting and land use point of view, but they'll also start design and come up with a rough cost estimate."

Under the terms of sale, NNN will have 120 days to conduct the feasibility study, with an option to extend it for up to 30 days, if necessary.

The agreement also calls for the Port to retain a right of first refusal for 15 years, effective only if the sale results in a future change in use of the property.

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Per the terms of sale, the Port is also retaining an option to repurchase the property if construction of the Dollar General or another retail-use development does not break ground within 450 days of closing.

De Mestre says it's been a long haul to remediate the site of the old Cashmere Mill so it could be reimagined into a mixed use location which includes some retail space.

"This parcel in particular is one we've worked with a couple of other retail-type uses on over the past few years, but we had a few issues with the Department of Ecology. The entire Cashmere Mill site was one that we worked to clean up and there was some final paperwork and approvals that we had to get taken care of, which happened earlier this year. So, it finally opened up and allowed us to sell the property when someone was interested. We'd always identified that parcel as more of a retail/commercial use, but the other properties south of the (Sunset) Highway we'd like to keep in that light industrial use that's already there."

The parcels were formally declared as surplus by the Chelan County Board of Commissioners on Jan. 26, 2021, when they were allowed to be repurposed for the support of private development.

De Mestre says that, in addition to the economics of the deal, the Port also consulted with the City of Cashmere prior to finalizing NNN's purchase of the parcels.

"We turned to the City of Cashmere to see if they would be in support of this, and the mayor is not only very supportive, but also excited to see it happen since it will add to the City's sales tax base. If the Port's going to sell property, we want it to be put into a use that contributes to the community and does it in a timely fashion. We don't just sell land to sell land - we sell it for a purpose."

Cashmere's Dollar General store would be the first in Chelan County and the ninth location in Central Washington, joining existing stores in George; Kittitas; Mattawa; Soap Lake; Warden; Wilbur; and two in Moses Lake.

The Goodlettsville, Tennessee-based chain has over 20,000 locations - primarily serving rural communities in 48 U.S. states and territories.