A California businessman has pledged to spend up to $35M to restore the Kalakala ferry.
SEATTLE – Charles Medlin, a California businessman who has wooed the historic Kalakala ferry for years, paid $140,000 at auction recently for the dilapidated art-deco ship and its entire cache of accompanying memorabilia, including hats, posters, T-shirts and old life preservers.
Medlin intends to spend up to $35 million to restore the once-elegant ferry that graced Puget Sound waters from 1935 to 1967 and transform it into a floating automotive museum on the San Francisco waterfront.
He said he would take the boat south by Sept. 30, after making initial repairs at Lake Union Drydock Co.
“I just look forward to preserving the boat,” said Medlin, who offered the Kalakala Foundation about $2 million for the ferry just a year ago. His long-distance offer was spurned by the board, which wanted to keep the ferry in local waters.
Medlin, 50, described himself as an investment developer. He would not say how much he was prepared to spend to buy the Kalakala, only that he was prepared to “prevail.”
The sale ends a years-long saga of repeated efforts to save a historic vessel that most believed too broken-down to fix.
Initially, the hull of the Kalakala was part of the steamship Peralta, built by Moore Shipyards in Oakland, Calif., in 1926. When the upper decks of the Peralta burned, Lake Washington Shipyards salvaged the steel hull and transformed the old steamer into an uncommonly elegant ferry.
Later it was grounded in an Alaskan cove and used as a seafood-processing plant before being abandoned.
In the mid-1980s, Peter Bevis spied the Kalakala while on a fishing trip near Kodiak and was mesmerized. The Seattle sculptor eventually organized an effort to rescue the boat, even borrowing from his mother to pay for the tow from Alaska to Seattle in 1998.
Bevis and a group of diehard local supporters formed the nonprofit Kalakala Foundation, hoping to turn the ferry into a tourist attraction. But complications and debts mounted faster than public and financial support.
Bevis fought a bitter feud with preservationist Art Skolnik, the group’s then-executive director. Each has accused the other of using the Kalakala to serve his personal interests.
The Kalakala Foundation declared bankruptcy in March, and its assets were ordered to be sold to pay $2 million in debts. Bevis claims $1.6 million is owed to him, most of it stemming from his initial costs of saving the ferry.
Both Skolnik and Bevis were present at the James G. Murphy auction in Kenmore last week, where a few hundred people came to witness the sale.
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“I would die to have that,” said Carol Smith, of Spokane, Wash., as she looked at old ferry posters.
Initially, the ferry was to be sold first, but lack of interest prompted auctioneer Tim Murphy to hold off.
Sitting up front were the Kalakala’s reluctant hosts, property owners James Reid, his father Robert Reid and Dan Fiorito.
“I’m just here to make sure they tell the bidders to get it off the property,” said Robert Reid. A condition of the sale is that the ferry be moved from its current North Lake Union slip by the end of the month.
Interest eventually grew. Around 11 a.m., they put the ferry up for sale.
Skolnik positioned himself in front of the auctioneer’s stand to watch as the bidding began.
Medlin stood out, the only person in a suit. He carried a briefcase and wore a gold lapel pin of an art-deco-style angel.
The bidding bounced back and forth between Medlin and Bob Hopper, who said he was a spokesman for a ship-salvaging facility in Tacoma that once owned the Kalakala.
Medlin coolly raised his placard against Hopper, who shook his head at the final $140,000 bid.
The crowd applauded when the auctioneer banged his gavel and hollered, “Sold!”
While he has not finalized repairs or moorage, Medlin said buying the Kalakala was the first step.
Bevis said he was relieved that the Kalakala found a good home.
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PHOTO (from KRT Photo Service, 202-383-6099): FERRYSALE
AP-NY-09-21-03 0603EDT
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