Help make the Olympic Hostel a reality

My name is Brent Butler, and I’m a former Let’s Go Austria travel writer. As a former board member of the Port Townsend-based Jefferson Land Trust (JTL) and Homeward Bound (now Olympic Housing Trust), I'm fully vested in the mission that the hostel building co-locate affordable unit(s) within the same structure and included the trusts as beneficiaries. I am writing for your support to open the Hostel, which is located in Port Townsend, Washington, on the Olympic Peninsula in a commercial building (C-II zone) behind Safeway, and adjacent to the Kitsap Credit Union.

The Olympic Peninsula Hostel will be standard size, 40 to 100 beds, in accordance with German standards. Schools, camps, families, and solo travelers may cook, converse, and sleep either in shared dorms or private rooms.

Hostels fill a niche, providing low-cost, short-term housing options for tourists and other travelers, often as cheap as $35/night in a dorm. For 18- to 24-year-olds and older adults on a fixed income, it meets their needs. Hostels give those seeking companionship and connections to the local community accommodation and shouldn’t compete with short term rentals such as Airbnb, hotels or motels because they serve a different market. This hostel will have a reading room or library and language learning center to bring people together to learn foreign languages with native speakers.

Nine-years ago, I purchased the Port Townsend School of Massage building to open a Hostel. From 2016 to 2025, I commissioned local carpenters and craftsmen to remove rot, and repair the roof, exterior walls, rim joists, and floors; sourced sustainable and recycled hardwood floors and worked with a team of local laborers, carpenters, and tradespeople to install them. To do this, I’ve secured and spent roughly $260,000 through a combination of my own financial commitment, Local Investing Opportunities Network (LION) community funding and in-kind work.

City code requires hostels to have fire suppression systems, unlike earlier similar uses. And I am closing the $45,000 gap for the $125,000 fire suppression system consisting of installation($65K) and water main extension ($60K).

Help us on this last stretch to OPEN before autumn rains.

Please be a part of creating this affordable community gathering space by helping to close the $45,000 gap to open the Olympic Peninsula Hostel by financing the required water main extension.

To learn more about the Olympic Peninsula Hostel and see our progress please check back here.

TOTAL SUBPROJECT COST: $125,000

($80k is in hand in low interest loans)

Estimate

$4,582 - Sheetrock removal and installation for new sprinkler system

$4,000 - Energy & Sound Insulation and painting

$61,935 - Fire Suppression system on all three floors

$8,000 - Labor to install the water main

$16,000 - Excavation services

$20,000 - Materials (water pipes, Fire Department Connection, etc.)

$10,000 - Miscellaneous expenses:

Permit fees ($1,500)

Inspections ($300)

Remodel costs ($6,000)

Materials not included ($2,000)