By Calder Stenn, Associate Editor
At the corner of Gorsuch Road and Vashon Highway lies the Vashon Youth and Family Services’ Playspace building. On March 17, the building will go to an anonymous buyer for $539,000.
However, for the past couple months, there had been another potential buyer: Michele McBride. She planned to use the location to start a recreational center for teenagers.
Unfortunately, the Vashon community’s lack of interest in McBride’s idea eventually caused her to abandon her quest to purchase the building.
“We needed to pull our offer because the interest within the community to support our business being in the building was just not there,” McBride said in an email. “At least, not to the extent that we could risk buying the building.
“Maybe if we weren’t in a time-sensitive crunch, brought about by the nature of purchasing a building, we may have been able to garner more interest. Since we did have a time limit, and it didn’t seem like numbers were going to climb, we decided it was better for the seller if we released the building for someone else to purchase.”
What a center like this could have done to the community environment, however, has drawn a significant amount of interest from the teens on the island. In fact, her concern as a teen, years before, fueled McBride’s energy toward this project.
“During my high school years, my friends and I complained about the same thing as you, ‘There is nothing to do,’” McBride said in an open letter. “I began dreaming of opening a teen-only gathering place.”
McBride’s dream of this new gathering center for teens would have offered a wide diversity of entertainment, including a variety of arcade and board games, arts and crafts area and a possible kitchen space.
She also planned to have an area called the O.C. (open communication) room, where teens could simply sit down and chat with each other or hold a group-wide discussion. McBride laid these ideas out in a blueprint of the building where she envisioned a culture in which teens actually led the center.
“I believe when teens are allowed to ‘own’ a project and space, they want to act with honor, integrity and respect,” McBride wrote in an email.
Part of McBride’s vision specifically targeted teenagers. It’s possible people over 21 would not have been allowed entrance unless they had a minor with them.
To secure a reliable stream of revenue to help start her business, McBride began a sponsor campaign that collected money from pre-signups.
“We [asked] teens to sign up for membership spots and community members to sign up to commit to sponsoring [a] membership of a teen in need,” McBride wrote.
Her overall objective was not only to earn the money she needed, but also to show the bank that she was eligible for a commercial loan, which depended upon the bank believing the business could be successful.
“Loan officers or brokers work to put deals together for the bank,” McBride wrote. “The loan officer thought the idea of having members sign up before we open with a commitment to pay the membership fee … would [make] the bank less nervous [about] giving a loan to a business with no known revenue.”
McBride also organized a capital campaign to raise money for the down payment on the building and the purchase of arcade games.
“The capital campaign we [ran was] to help raise extra money for the down payment,” McBride wrote. “If we [had lowered] the mortgage payment so it [was] covered by rents, then the lender [would have felt] secure. We [asked] the community to match what my husband and I [were] putting down.”
In the weeks leading up to the official purchase of the building, McBride actively reached out to the youth community, trying to consolidate their support. She talked to VHS Youth Leadership, The Riptide, and the Dove’s Teen Council — which was especially vocal on the project.
Unfortunately, before The Riptide could cover the story, McBride made the decision to pull the plug on her idea.
Students who supported the concept were highly disappointed.
“Since everything closes so early on Vashon, it [would have been] so awesome to be able to have a place to go get some coffee and hang out and talk maybe a little later than usual,” Dove Teen Council member Maijah Sanson-Frey said.
“I believe that if this [had become] a reality, it could [have been] the baseline for changing the infamous stigma Vashon carries regarding youth and drug abuse, and the Teen Spot could [have been] that awesome, healthy, social alternative that us teens have been in dire need of,” Dove Teen Council member Gerry Gerrior said.