Deal would sell landmark brewery in Tumwater to Seattle company

TUMWATER, Wash. — An agreement has been reached for a Seattle company to buy the old Olympia brewery here for $45 million, according to court documents filed this week.

The agreement is subject to approval by U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Paul Snyder, who is scheduled to consider the motions July 5 in Tacoma.

The purchaser of the 120-acre property would be the family owned Benaroya Co. The property, currently owned by All American Bottled Water Corp., is in bankruptcy proceedings.

Benaroya could still pull out of the deal if it finds problems with the property during an inspection period, The Olympian newspaper reported.

"There is no deal until a judge says there's a deal," a Benaroya executive, Joseph Alhadeff, told The Olympian.

Miller Brewing Co. closed the 111-year-old brewery in 2003, putting hundreds of people out of work.

Miller sold the property for $14 million in 2004 to All American, a startup company led by L. Eric Whetstone, who planned to bottle water on the property.

But a bank that gave Whetstone a loan commitment of $125 million withdrew, and Barney Ng, a California-based lender, foreclosed on the property and moved to sell it to recoup $34.2 million he said he and his investors loaned Whetstone.

Three creditors then stepped in to force the property into involuntary bankruptcy.

Under the deal submitted for court approval, Ng and his investors would receive $33.5 million.

Other secured creditors would receive half of what they're owed and could try to recover the balance from a fund set aside for unsecured creditors.

Tumwater officials said they were happy with the prospect of the property being redeveloped to bring renewed life to the community.

"It will affect all of us on the periphery — in shops, museums, in the community." said Carla Wulfsberg, Tumwater's museum coordinator. "Things have been very quiet here. Nobody comes here anymore. It's been a ghost town since June 2003."