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Hello and Happy December,
Let me start by saying that we hope this message finds you well and that you have survived the high waters this last couple of weeks with little damage.
December is our busiest month of the year and this December brings big news. New Years Eve this year will be our last day open for business at our current location at 1205 Washington street. The property is under new ownership and the new owners plan to tear down the shop to build an apartment building. If you are wondering why I don’t own the property please read on and I will fill you in at the end. What is important for everyone to know is that if everything goes according to the plan this is not the end of Carne, only the end of business at the corner of Elm and Broadway. With the current state of real estate in Bellingham we do not have an option to move the business to currently. But we are brainstorming ideas for how to continue the business while we wait for the right opportunity.
We are ever so grateful for all of you and your support over the last 8 years. We run this little shop because we believe in creating easy access to sustainable and healthy food. We have not wavered in our belief and this pandemic has only solidified our vision of what society needs it’s food system to look like.
This month is going to be crazy and we ask that you will be understanding of everything that we may be juggling. As per usual we are taking orders for your holiday roasts so make sure to get those in soon. Our lobby is currently well stocked for gifts and stocking stuffers. We assume that some of you may want to stock your freezer and we will take those orders as well, but we will have to schedule those around the holiday rush hours.
If you are reading this on social media and want to be first to know any news about Carne’s future you can go to our website and sign up to be on our email list.
Thank you all again for the opportunity to be your neighborhood butcher and we hope that we can continue to be in 2022.
Ok, if you have made it this far it means you would like to know the details so here they are. In 2013 I started this business with a friend and a Kickstarter campaign. While we loved our old location on State street we needed something better. I spotted the old Bean Blossom location at 1205 Washington street for sale in 2016 but we were not able to get a loan to purchase the property because there was a soil study pending. This location had been a gas station 40 years earlier, and even though the soil had been remediated in the mid-nineties and a drive through coffee shop had been built, the state was again holding Chevron on the hook for another soil study. This was simply drilling and sampling soil and groundwater at a few different locations around the building. In 2017 the property came up for sale again and was purchased with cash by our landlord for the last four years. My agent immediately contacted me and soon we had a lease and a contract written up. The new owner was working with the department of ecology on the soil study schedule and was informed they needed to take samples once a quarter for four quarters and they planned to start in 2018. Our contract was to lease the property for up to 2 years giving the state time to complete the study at which point I was to purchase the property for the previously agreed upon price. As many of you know now the Department of Ecology took almost 4 years to finish the study and they found no contamination. I was informed recently by my landlord that he was selling the property to a developer and the price was well beyond my means as a shop owner.
I had every intention of preserving this great shop location for generations to come and now I believe that there is something better for us in the future.
Thank you,
Shaun
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