Nonprofit official talks future plans for Aberdeen’s historic Morck Hotel

Forterra plans to redevelop the Morck Hotel in Aberdeen to serve as a cornerstone for the revitalization of the downtown core, according to the organization’s Chehalis Basin Director Nicholas Carr.

He told the attendees of Tuesday’s Greater Grays Harbor Inc.’s monthly business lunch at the Rotary Log Pavilion he wanted to quell some of the misconceptions out there about the future of the historic hotel: It will be what it was designed to be when it opened in 1924, a hotel.

“We are going to redevelop the Morck as a hotel and an economic driver for downtown Aberdeen,” he said.

Plans are to restore the original facade and windows, said Carr. The first floor will be a community gathering space, including a restaurant, private event space “and/or other local businesses or entrepreneurial opportunities,” according to Carr’s presentation. The upper floors will have hotel rooms.

Forterra, a nonprofit organization that purchases properties for redevelopment, is committed to ownership of the Morck, said Carr.

“We want this to be a community development project, a hub for future downtown development,” he said. “We want this to be sustainable to encourage development down the line.”

Carr said Forterra is in the project for the long haul. Forterra has no plans to redevelop the Morck and shop it to potential buyers, he told attendees of the lunch.

“The owners of the Morck will be us,” he said. “We plan to be in the community for the duration, the landowners for the foreseeable future.”

Forterra has a signed purchase and sale agreement with the Morck’s current owner, Tim Quigg, said Carr. The sale will be finalized at the end of the “extended due diligence and feasibility period,” according to Carr’s presentation.

Carr said with the help of Aberdeen Mayor Erik Larson and Rep. Brian Blake, D-Aberdeen, Forterra was able to secure a $500,000 grant from the state’s capital budget to proceed with the due diligence and feasibility studies.

The process is ongoing and not a lot of details have been made available about the future of the Morck at this point. Carr said the the timeline was “a little fudgy,” but he is hopeful the feasibility study could be ready by the first or second quarter of 2020.

When reinvisioning the Morck, Forterra has looked at other historic hotel models, notably the Commodore Hotel in Astoria, Oregon. Calling itself a “boutique hotel,” the Commodore is located in Astoria’s historic downtown district.

A rendering of the future vision of the Morck has not yet been completed, but Carr said it’s in the works.

Describing why the Morck was a good fit for Forterra, Carr explained for one it is situated to anchor the west side of downtown’s Aberdeen Creative District, which is under development. Carr’s presentation described the Morck as “a keystone property to catalyze Aberdeen’s downtown revival,” and said Forterra could look to other properties nearby in the future.

The Morck was added to the National Register of Historic Places in May 2016. According to the National Park Service, the Morck was the pre-eminent hotel in the region for more than 40 years before it was transferred to different ownership and converted into apartments in 1961 and, in the early 1980s, a low-income apartment complex renamed the Morck Apartments, later Washington Apartments in 2004.

As for funding, Carr’s presentation talked about Forterra’s Strong Communities Fund II, described as “a social investment fund dedicated to keeping our region inclusive and welcoming to all.” It deploys “a network of co-investors, lenders, and donors to invest in keystone properties that anchor communities and revitalize economies,” according to Carr’s presentation.