State's Sun Belt Waterfront Properties Near Boiling Point -- A Stampede Of Puget Sounders Hits Once-Sleepy Area In Eastern Washington

ORONDO, Wash. - When you finish reading this story, listen closely. The sound you'll hear will be that of half the people in Wenatchee kicking themselves, and it will barely be audible over the sound of Puget Sounders racing to the Sun Belt to buy up waterfront land.

We're not talking Lake Chelan property here. That's long been out of the reach of mere mortals. No, we're talking about the once-sleepy east banks of the Columbia River, between Chelan Falls and Turtle Rock.

The most dramatic evidence is at Lake Entiat Estates, otherwise known as Sun Cove, a 23-year-old, long-slumbering development north of Orondo that came to life suddenly last year with the sale of about 150 lots.

But the squeeze is on all along that piece of waterfront, mainly because there isn't a whole lot of accessible, buildable waterfront left.

"Home sites along the waterfront have taken as much as a 100- to 150-percent price increase in the last two years. Some of the best stuff still hasn't been sold (between Turtle Rock and Chelan Falls), but I can't find any that I can afford," said Pat Dull, administrative assistant in the Douglas County Assessor's Office.

"We have people at the counter, more than one a week, asking, `Who owns this piece of property along the river?' And the thing that comes up during the discussion is they're mostly private parties, typically out-of-area people, looking for secondary home sites."

This topic is fresh on Dull's mind because the assessor's office is preparing to send out its new assessments for the area between Turtle Rock and Orondo.

Those assessments show that a nice buildable lot with about 150 feet of waterfront is worth $450 a front foot at top value or - get ready - $67,000. The typical assessment is about $300 a front foot.

Two years ago the top value was $250 a front foot. And during the last appraisal, orchards with waterfront property were assessed as agricultural land, not as potential recreation sites. These things will be different after this assessment.

"There's enough market activity to prove the highest and best use of the property is as waterfront development," Dull said.

"The last time we appraised it, the demand wasn't there for waterfront development. But an orchard along the river suitable for development is prime waterfront stuff, and the market value on that piece has taken some substantial increases."

Most orchard property in the area is being appraised at a lower value than 10 years ago, so until people start building on the land,

the Orondo School District won't experience a boom in tax revenue.

People aren't paying the same price for orchards as they did even five years ago, said Dull. And old orchards have been torn out and replaced by new, as yet non-producing, varieties of trees. "When you've got a 1-year-old stick in the ground, it takes a while to build those values back up."

Dull is braced for the howls from 10 to 15 orchardists with waterfront property who are going to see their taxes explode. There is an out, he said. Orchardists may enroll in the "current use" program and actually lower their taxes. The hitch is if they sell the property for a non-farming use, they face back taxes and possibly penalties.

"If I had an orchard along the river," said Dull, "I would have it enrolled in current use, and if the demand for waterfront property got to be such that I wanted to sell out, I would have the purchaser worry about paying the taxes if he wanted it that bad."

And the way things are going, a developer just might.

Randy Zielinski, managing partner of the Sanford Shores Partnership, is developing a 10-lot subdivision, with 1,050 feet of waterfront, about three miles south of Orondo.

Zielinski's group paid $175,000 for the 13 acres, eight of which are under water. He plans to sell the developed lots, each with 100 feet of waterfront, for - get ready again - $90,000 to $110,000.

"What makes me think I can do that? We've done a market analysis of waterfront property and . . . our main comparison was up at Lake Chelan, where property is selling for $2,000 to $4,000 a front foot. After asking around, we established that our market was at $1,000 a front foot," said Zielinski.

Of course, his development costs will be substantial. The owners must install a community water system and irrigation system, hook everyone's septic tanks to a community drain field and even provide a community satellite system for cable TV.

"These are expensive lots, and they'd better be damn nice," Zielinski said. "We didn't want individual property owners to put in 10 satellite dishes, so we're setting our own satellites on the property we own across the way (highway)."

Zielinski said he started his project with his good friend, the late Jeff Sanford, about two years ago. "We were boaters and we were looking for property along the Columbia River. That was our motivation. We always thought we'd make some money on this thing, but no, we didn't realize the value of property when we originally started."

When Sanford died in a car crash last October, Zielinski carried on with partners Earl Cusick, Daryl Cusick, Ted Zielinski, Bill Rode and Mark Neal. Zielinski has spent nearly a year trying to get all the necessary permits, and he expects to get the final approvals this summer. When the development is ready, he'll keep one lot for himself and sell the rest.

He's already tested the waters, with an ad he placed in a Seattle newspaper last week.

"I probably got 20 to 25 calls, but it doesn't mean anything till I get the earnest money," Zielinski said. "I tell everybody the price range and it will certainly turn off a few of them.

"Hey, if I wasn't doing the developing, I'd be way out of the market, too."