Bankruptcyfiling derails town center sale

The fate of the historic Skamokawa Town Center is still in limbo.

The auction to sell the town center and all its assets was scheduled for last Friday at 10 a.m. but the auction took an unexpected twist after its current owner, Richard G. Hofmann or Miraculous Properties, LLC, used a legal maneuver to postpone the sale.

Unbeknownst to the parties who had arrived on the front steps of the Wahkiakum Court House to bid on the center, Hoffman had filed for bankruptcy the day before the auction. His filing set in motion a legal situation that must now be resolved before the sale of the town center can move forward.

Filing a petition for bankruptcy under federal law automatically stays most collection actions against the debtor and/or the debtor’s property, which in this case has allowed Hoffman to postpone the bank’s foreclosure on Skamokawa Town Center. The move has also allowed Hoffman to remain in residence in one of the town center's four condos.

“I wanted to bid on the town center,” said Aneesha Holiday of Longview. “I have big plans for the place. I want to make it a center for learning.”

Holiday is a lifestyle and yoga instructor and said that if she can raise the funds to buy center, the first thing she plans to do is move the Post Office (currently inside the main building) into the little building the town center owns next to Steamboat Slough Road.

She also said her plans include turning the town center’s old grocery store into a new health food and meditation center.

“I also plan to have a live-in guru and turn all the hotel rooms and condos into a youth hostel,” said Holiday.

Holiday said she thinks that, as a learning center, Skamokawa Town Center needs more parking and she would try to buy other property for parking.

“I’d also like to get that area next to the fishing company cleaned up,” said Holiday, "it looks terrible.”