The property, at 13412 N.E. Fourth Plain Blvd., is listed by RE/MAX Equity Group for $699,000, down from $750,000 in June.
On Jan. 15, 2017, the Sifton Market caught fire around 5:30 a.m. A clerk, 47-year-old Amy Marie Hooser, had been opening the store for the day when the building caught fire. Her death was ruled a homicide by blunt force trauma and smoke inhalation.
Police later arrested Vancouver resident and regular customer Mitchell Heng, then 21, in connection with the fire. He was charged with murder, robbery and arson, all in the first degree, and his trial is scheduled to start in October.
Last year, store owner Tom Ranck told The Columbian that he’d planned to reopen the store.
“Buildings and businesses, no matter how much of a loss there is, can always be replaced. A human life never can,” Ranck said nine months after the fire that killed Hooser.
But last week, he said he’d decided to pass the property off to a new owner, citing fatigue after more than 30 years spent running the store.
“It’s better to sell the project to somebody else that might be more … enthusiastic about the venture,” Ranck said. “It could be rebuilt and be a very nice place.”
The Sifton Market had been part of a plaza, Orchards Market retail center, that also housed a barber shop, a pet supply store and a pet-grooming business, all of which took heavy damage in the fire.
Ranck and his wife, Melanie, purchased the Sifton Stop N Shop in 1986, and 12 years later bought the entire building. When Melanie fell ill in 2008, they sold the store to a new owner who renamed it the Oasis Market. Melanie died a few years later, and Ranck repurchased the store in 2016 and restored its name to the Sifton Market.
His decision to sell, he said, was motivated by the tangle of red tape involved in rebuilding his property after the fire.
“The main reason it’s for sale is because Clark County couldn’t get permits or anything issued fast enough for me to use the insurance,” Ranck said. “I spent good money, hired architects and engineers, and used the insurance proceeds as soon as possible to get the mess cleaned up. I was sorely underinsured. I didn’t have enough insurance to last out this process of politics.”
As of Tuesday, the lot has been on the market for 75 days. It features a 5,700-square-foot convenience store and retail building, gas pumps, four fuel tanks, a canopy and “Texaco” signage. The site also includes two curb-cut access points to Fourth Plain Boulevard.
The property is just shy of a half-acre and zoned as light industrial.
“I just don’t have the fire in my belly to go back on Fourth Plain and go through a lot of the building process,” Ranck said, adding that he’s proud of the years he spent running the Sifton Market.
“That store did fantastic things for me and my family. My wife and I work very hard on our business ventures and we knew exactly what it takes to make an operation like that successful.”
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