The Port of Tacoma is finally close to unloading its long-problematic Maytown property in southern Thurston County, with a purchase-and-sale agreement to transfer the 745-acre site to Miles Sand & Gravel for $17.25 million. Port commissioners signed off on the deal at their April 21 meeting, and Miles hit its earnest-money deadline on April 28, kicking off a due-diligence period that could run into August and, with allowed extensions, toward a late December closing. Port leaders are pitching the sale as a way to get a long-running, nonperforming asset off the books, even though the price comes in below what the port paid back in 2006.
What the parcel contains
The Maytown property, listed as 13120 Tilley Road SW, covers about 745 acres and sits roughly 2.5 miles east of Interstate 5, according to a listing from the Port of Tacoma. Port materials say the land comes with vested Thurston County special-use and state reclamation permits, industrial water rights and an internal web of access roads tied to past industrial activity. Those documents also describe an active mine permit that authorizes extraction of up to about 20.6 million cubic yards of aggregate and lays out eight distinct mining areas within the project.
Price, timeline and what the port will record
Under the agreement, Miles Sand & Gravel is set to pay $17.25 million for the acreage, a price the port characterized as below its 2024 appraisal but acceptable given the overall terms, according to The News Tribune. A financial summary presented to commissioners puts the site’s current net book value at about $7.84 million and notes that the port expects to record an unbudgeted gain on the sale once it closes. Miles, which operates across Western Washington, confirmed in an emailed statement that it is in due diligence and said the timetable includes detailed review of both physical conditions and documents, as outlined by Miles Sand & Gravel.
Past deals and legal headaches
This latest deal is the third major attempt to move the land since the port bought it in 2006. Earlier efforts included a 2010 sale structured with a mix of cash and sand-and-gravel payments and a 2018 agreement with NorthPoint Development that later collapsed amid zoning denials and neighborhood pushback, according to historical reporting from The Olympian. The port originally paid about $21.25 million for the property as part of a plan for an inland logistics center with the Port of Olympia and later spent millions more on cleanup, monitoring and site work tied to environmental requirements. Years of transactional twists, permitting battles and appeals have helped shape local expectations about how mining and reclamation should play out on and around the site.
Community concerns and habitat
Neighbors and environmental advocates have long resisted expanded industrial activity on the surrounding prairie. At the April commission meeting, Sharron Coontz of Friends of Rocky Prairie urged port leaders to make sure any project sticks to the monitoring and reclamation plan already in place. The News Tribune quoted Coontz saying she hoped the new operation would “follow the plan laid out to protect the area, which is reclaiming it to ponds and wildlife habitat completely.” Opponents frequently point to adjacent state-owned prairie and stands of oak as reasons for regulators and residents to keep a close eye on future permitting and reclamation work.
Legal backdrop…