It is a game of musical chairs at the historic train depot in Centralia, as two tenants plan to leave in December while another is expanding.
Detectives from the Centralia Police Department expect to move back to City Hall in the next couple of weeks after renovation and expansion of the police department in City Hall is complete. Detectives have occupied part of the south building.
A community multi-purpose room on the first floor in the center building was originally intended for rent, according to Dave Eatwell, downtown economic development coordinator for Centralia. In the absence of anyone interested in signing a lease, it has occasionally been used to hold meetings.
In addition, one business is leaving and another is expanding.
"We're not sure what will happen there," said Eatwell of the city-owned depot. "A lot depends on what happens with the Wilson Hotel (which was purchased earlier this year). We may have to move my office and the Convention and Tourism Bureau there, depending on how rapidly they move with the renovation of the hotel. Or we could make the space available for rent or lease by private business. We just haven't decided."
The depot was remodeled over an eight-year period ending in 2002 at a cost of $4.8 million. Properly called Union Station, it is two blocks long and includes three buildings connected by breezeways. It is owned by the city of Centralia. Unlike many older depots, this one is still used as a train station, in this case by Amtrak.
Mark Camp, a director of the Railroad Station Historical Society and a professor of geology at the University of Toledo, Ohio, estimates that fewer than 50 percent of old depots are still in use and, of that number, fewer than half are still used by railroads.
"Of the others, a large percentage are some kind of museum, or perhaps partially restored and used for meeting rooms and community activities in a given town," said Camp. "Restaurants are one of the more common uses. A lot of times they will play on the historic aspect to get people to eat. The rest are a wide gamut. There are even a few that are churches, barber shops and all sorts of antique shops."
HISTORY OF UNION STATION
Union Station was built in 1912, the heyday for shipping of trees and lumber. It was the successor to two previous depots, both made of wood. One was built in 1880, the other in either 1905 or 1908 according to newspaper records at the Lewis County Historical Museum, itself housed in the old Chehalis depot.
It was a different time. A picture found in the museum files shows people lined up with horses and carriages to meet a train. In 1911, while plans were ongoing for the current depot, an article in the Centralia News-Examiner notes a petition sent to the Northern Pacific Railroad headquarters (then the depot owner) requesting a "depot matron" be appointed.
"The necessity of affording protection to young women and young girls who arrive and depart from Centralia can no longer be overlooked," read the article. "The danger is imminent and something should be done to offset the schemes of the procurer and those who make a business of leading young girls to ruin."
A depot matron was appointed in July of that year.
The new depot was estimated to cost $500,000 in 1910. That increased to an estimated $750,000 by 1911. It was an awfully large depot for a city with a population of 10,000, although local residents anticipated an eventual population of 50,000.
The station took an estimated 500 men around a year to build. It had a brick exterior, tile roof, heavy oak millwork, terrazzo floor, ornate ceilings and leaded windows. It was dedicated at 2:30 p.m. June 3 in the company of more than 100 visiting officials from the Great Northern, Burlington Northern, and Oregon Washington Railroad & Navigation. They watched as a Centralia pilot named Claude Berlin dropped several bottles of champagne on the roof — and broke several of the new tiles in the process.
A large roundhouse was built for repairs later in the year. There was likely a freight house, according to Camp, and a water tank.
Around 1912, William Jennings Bryan, secretary of state and former presidential candidate, spoke from a platform next to the station.
By 1944, 44 passenger trains and 17 freight trains passed through Centralia each day.
In 1961, a dropped ceiling was added to the passenger part of the depot, transforming the ornate 30-foot high ceiling to a rather bland looking 18-foot high ceiling in an apparent effort to make it look more modern.
In 1979, the station was considered (and eventually received) for listing on the National Register of Historic Places.
In 1994, the state of Washington purchased Union Station from the Burlington Northern railroad for $1 and turned it over to the city of Centralia. The city was planning a renovation of the depot which was originally estimated to run $1.2 million. The eventual cost was $4.8 million. It took place in three phases, starting in 1996, according to Eatwell, and was completed in 2002.
IMPRESSES THE CLIENTS
Leaving the second floor of the depot after a three-year stay is Kinetic Datacom (which changed its name last week from Sentertech), a firm that creates and installs computer networks. Started in 1995 by Centralia native Derek Senter as a sideline while he was in the U.S. Air Force, the company evolved into a full-time business when he joined up with Morris Pettit.
The company offers one-stop shopping for smaller businesses — smaller being defined as those needing 15 to 20 computer stations and without computer experts on staff.
"From the computer screen back through the wall and through to the Internet," said Senter.
It creates software, then subcontracts the installation of cable and the purchase of servers and computers. Recently it has made a major jump, incorporating voice communications into its networks.
"Up 'til this point we've had to have two sets of wires, one for voice (telephone) and one for data," said Pettit. "Now we can created a network with one wire."
The advantages are twofold. Businesses with multiple locations can save long-distance charges by talking over the Internet instead of phone lines. In addition, it is a lot less costly to install one set of wires rather than two.
"At the last big building we did, we saved $36,000 in wiring," said Senter. "That could almost pay for the phone system."
The main challenge for the company has been persuading local businesses that they don't have to leave town for computer services.
"When we first started a few years ago, the bigger businesses in the area in need of computer work assumed it had to be someone from Bellevue or Portland or Seattle to handle what we can do," said Senter. "Now it has almost reversed, and we're getting calls from Seattle and Bellevue to help there."
They've also been successful locally, bringing in such customers as Halls Drugs Center, Moerke and Sons, and Lund Realtors.
They've liked working on the second floor of the train depot, which features exposed brick walls, wooden support arches, an arched ceiling and low windows. The former attic is quite changed from the one-time hangout for hobos who were riding the trains. Kinetic Datacom has found the space an advantage to a starting business.
"It's been wonderful to bring customers into a space like this," said Senter.
"It gives the impression that you are an established business," added Pettit.
If there is a downside to the location, it is the sound of the whistles and rumbling of passing trains that occasionally distract from business.
"That's fine when you're at a baseball game, but when on the phone to a critical customer …" said Senter.
In the next month, the company plans to move to a second-story space at 101 N. Tower Ave., where it can expand its business.
TAKING OVER THE SECOND FLOOR
In contrast, Strategic Ancillaries (formerly Washington Orthopedic Consulting) intends to expand its operation. The first business to rent space in the depot since a multi-million remodeling was finished in 2002, Strategic Ancillaries plans to expand into the arched space that Kinetic Datacom will soon exit.
The business was started by Kevin McHugh, who started working for Washington Orthopedic Center in 1994. He applied the concept of "destination marketing" to Washington Orthopedic, and later to Pacific Cataract & Laser in Chehalis.
The concept of destination marketing was something he studied while active with Destination Centralia, a community marketing effort. As part of its task force, he went to five smaller East Coast cities that had reinvented themselves as regional destinations. The task force created a 10-point report on what elements were needed to make Centralia a regional destination.
"I applied that to health care," said McHugh. "What kind of infrastructure do we need to put in place in the community to counteract migration? Why do patients go to Seattle?"
In the case of Pacific Cataract, that involved creating all-inclusive facilities and flying in patients from five Northwest states. Likewise for Washington Orthopedic, it involved creating one-stop shopping: clinic, MRI, surgery center and physical therapy.
"The notoriety of Washington Orthopedic had spread," said McHugh. "There were patients from Olympia and Astoria and all over Southwest Washington. Doctors were coming here and looking at the model as well, and asking how can you help us to develop a facility. It had been done in a metropolitan setting, but it hadn't been done in a rural setting."
In 1998, McHugh created Washington Orthopedic Consulting, and in 2000 the company moved to the train depot. Since then, it has helped create $160 million in health care facilities, usually outpatient operations. It creates the initial concept, conducts feasibility studies, arranges financing and manages construction. To do so, it brings in architects and contractors, and educate lenders about why it believes they should loan money.
"We have to educate the lender on the business model and get them comfortable with loaning money to a small group of doctors," said McHugh. "That's been a real challenge."
In the process of creating such centers, it also made them more efficient.
"On the average, we can find a doctor three weeks of new time a year," said McHugh.
When a facility is complete, it offers management services such as claims processing and payments, essentially becoming the back office for the centers it helped create.
Recently, it has received attention in the industry. It is up for an award from the American Institute of Architects for its work on a center in Puyallup, and has been written about in a trade publication called Health Care Design.
As for its location, the company likes it.
"It's been super," said McHugh, though he laughs when a train whistle and the rumble of passing train cars interrupts an interview: "We are in a train depot."
Mark Lawton covers economic and energy issues for The Chronicle. He may be reached at 807-8231, or by e-mail at mlawton@chronline.com
