Community Education

Peninsula School District buys more land next to Peninsula High School

Peninsula School District is poised to add another property to its recent real estate acquisitions surrounding Peninsula High School. 

The school board on Jan. 20 approved buying a 0.63-acre property with a home on 144th Street NW. The land is west of Peninsula High, near the tennis court parking lot. Public documents show the district will pay current owner Harborview Fellowship Church and Conference Center just shy of $492,000 ($491,973.30, including fees) for the land and home. The sale will close Friday, Jan. 29. 

Agenda item called out

The board had the purchase on its consent agenda, meaning it did not plan to discuss the matter. But President Natalie Wimberley asked CFO Ashley Murphy to explain the sale.

Murphy said the property would be used for “future school-level programming that would move some district-level programming onto the PHS campus.”

The Peninsula School District purchased this 0.63 acre plot adjacent to Peninsula High School.

“I can’t speak in a ton of detail in regards to all of it, because I am waiting to finalize everything so I can get a contractor in there and see if the building is going to work for its intended purposes,” Murphy said. “But ultimately, what this allows us to do is really continue to broaden the services of what Peninsula High School can provide to our entire student population.”

Murphy said the district will use investment proceeds from its capital projects fund to buy the property. The district invested money from its 2019 bond until it needed the funds to pay for new schools. Those investments generated revenue for other capital projects and property purchases. 

“So, this is not bond funding,” she explained. “This is funding that’s truly dedicated to these types of purchases and can’t be used on, let’s say, salaries, benefits, academic instruction for kids, anything like that. It truly has to be utilized for acquisition of land, real estate, significant facility upgrades, those type of things.”

Murphy said the district negotiated to pay $60,000 less than the asking price for the property.

Separate from Rush sale

The property is separate from the 20.42 acres the district bought from Gig Harbor-based Rush Companies in November 2024. Peninsula schools paid $6.24 million for eight parcels, most of them directly across 62nd Avenue from the high school. The sale curtailed Rush Companies’ plan to build a large residential neighborhood there. 

The purchase and sale agreement also gave the district the option to buy an additional 4.89-acre strip just south of the high school property line for $260,000. The district wanted additional time to investigate whether a well on that parcel is potable and free from contaminants, and to determine that there were no boundary disputes affecting the property.

Spokeswoman Danielle Chastaine last week confirmed that the district finalized purchase of the 4.89-acre property on March 31, 2025, which was its deadline to act on the option.

Like at the time of the purchase, district officials gave few specifics about plans for the mostly vacant land. Murphy on Friday said the district demolished buildings that were on the 20.42-acre property and completed asbestos abatement.

“But that’s all that’s been done with it so far,” she said, reiterating that the two parcels are slated for unspecified future use.

The property includes an 1,140-square-foot house previously owned by Harborview Fellowship. Photo by Christina T. Henry.

New property history, specs

The Pierce County Assessor’s Office values the 0.63-acre property on 144th at $487,300.

An investment company bought the property for $200,000 in a 2017 estate sale. Harborview Fellowship, doing business as the nonprofit Shelter for the Needy, bought the property in 2022 for $600,000.

The building is a 1,140-square-foot, single-story, three-bedroom, one-bathroom home in “average” condition. It has a small, finished attic, a garage-level basement and a circular driveway. It was built in 1948, but the assessor lists its adjusted year built (taking into account renovations and overall maintenance) as 1989.