After the former location of Papa Pete’s Pizza and Shari’s Restaurant burned down in March, the City of Centralia decided to give the property owner a couple months to voluntarily clean up the property, according to City Attorney Kyle Manley, who updated the Centralia City Council on the Harrison Avenue site at Tuesday night’s council meeting.
After nothing happened initially, Manley’s office stepped in.
“We sent him a notice that the property is a nuisance and that he needs to get it cleaned up. He was given until the end of May to take steps towards abating the nuisance,” Manley said.
The owner expressed concerns to the city attorney’s office about getting an asbestos report to begin cleanup efforts and dispose of the restaurant’s rubble.
“He finally got the report to our office on May 31. So pretty much at the deadline when he was supposed to have this cleaned up, he finally got the report to us,” Manley said.
Since the report was delivered, Manley said the owner has been working with Sandrini Construction, Inc. out of Chehalis to arrange excavation and debris hauling.
“It should be coming along soon. Sandrini has the report and so they’re getting ready to head out there and start cleaning up,” Manley said.
The hexagon-shaped building where Papa Pete’s was most recently located originally opened in January 1983 as the 26th restaurant in the Shari’s chain, according to previous Chronicle reporting. Shari’s closed in 2007, but the building remained.
Three years later, in June 2010, the Castle Rock-based chain Papa Pete’s Pizza announced it would open a new location in the hexagon-shaped building on Harrison Avenue.
At 4,300 square feet, the Centralia location was Papa Pete’s smallest eatery, according to previous Chronicle reporting.
The pizza chain operated on Harrison Avenue through February 2022 before permanently closing its Centralia location.
Papa Pete’s locations remain in Castle Rock, Longview and Ridgefield.
The fire was reportedly sparked by a man described by police as a transient who was inside the vacant building.
According to Lewis County Parcels, the property is owned by Vahan Dinihanian of 933 Harrison Avenue Centralia LLC. About $16,500 is owed in taxes on the property.
