The Pourhouse and old Selmer’s buildings could be torn down in the near future to make room for Aberdeen’s planned Gateway Center.

The City of Aberdeen is accepting bids from companies to perform geotechnical engineering services for the Gateway Center, which is planned to go where the two historic buildings are located near the corner of East Wishkah Street and South F Street, across from Zelasko Park.

In order to analyze the soil for the engineering work, the contracted company would need to first demolish those two buildings.

According to the request for proposals, bids are due to the city by Wednesday at 3 p.m., and the selected engineering firm is anticipated to start work August 24, but there’s no clear timeline for when demolitions would happen.

The Pourhouse was a bar and music venue, notable as a spot where Kurt Cobain and Krist Novoselic played when Nirvana was being formed.

There’s an online petition on Change.org to save the Pourhouse from demolition, which currently has 457 of the requested 500 signatures. In the petition, it writes that signees will not re-elect Aberdeen Mayor Erik Larson if he follows through with demolishing the Pourhouse.

“Demolishing these historic buildings would cost the city of Aberdeen hundreds of thousands of dollars that could be better spent elsewhere, and rob the citizens of Aberdeen of a priceless piece of its history,” the petition reads.

Larson told The Daily World that he welcomes any proposals for preserving the Pourhouse, and that if there’s interest in reopening the venue, he would consider it.

“It would require interest of using that building,” said Larson. “If someone wanted to preserve the building and use it for something, there are things the city could use.”