OLYMPIA, Wash. — Spooner Berry Farms may be forced to close after 47 years on Yelm Highway as the City of Olympia moves forward with plans for a community park that doesn’t include the stand.
Owners Tim and Sue Spooner said the city’s park plans would push out their berry stand, which they call a “staple of the community.” Olympia noted it has been working with the family for nearly a decade and has offered alternatives.
“There is no reason that we can’t co-exist with a park and berry stand,” the company wrote.
Olympia says it has been working with the family for years; owners say they were blindsided
Sue Spooner joined “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio to explain how a former Olympia parks director, Jonathan Turlove, assured her that the berry stand would have a part in the park’s plans.
“The city does not want to be known as the berry killers,” Spooner said Turlove told her.
The City of Olympia told KIRO Newsradio that the Spooners’ claims were inaccurate, noting that the two sides have been communicating for nearly a decade as the plans for the new park developed.
The city said planning spanned more than two decades, with some iterations of the plan including the stand, while others did not. Still, Olympia assured that no one within the city told Spooner that the berry stand would be guaranteed a permanent spot in the park.
“No staff member at any point in that process was in a position to guarantee the stand’s exact location in perpetuity, and none did,” the city stated. “We’ve offered multiple alternatives to the Spooner family who has not been amenable to these.”
Spooner said she learned in November 2025 that the berry stand would need to move after receiving an email from the city that she had to read three times in disbelief.
“Out of the blue, I got an email saying, ‘Can you move your stand out the end of December?’” Spooner said. “I had to reread that email like three times. Why are you asking me to leave? I mean, what has changed? And they haven’t been able to give me an answer.”
The city responded by stating that the Spooners’ concessionaire agreement expires Oct. 1, which was “a date set with their knowledge and input” that had been planned in late 2023 and early 2024.
“The City has been in direct communication with them about construction since the beginning of this year,” Olympia stated. “This did not ‘blindside’ her. Construction bids are now open, and work is expected to begin on site before the end of the year.”
Olympia offered two alternatives — Spooner says neither one works
The city outlined legal constraints that now make it impossible for the berry stand to remain in the park permanently. The park’s property was acquired with state and federal grant funds that restrict its use to solely outdoor recreation purposes, meaning a permanent private business on the site would violate the terms of the grants.
“What the City cannot do is sell or permanently lease parkland acquired with state and federal outdoor-recreation funds to a private, for-profit business,” Olympia stated. “That’s a legal restriction tied to the grant terms themselves, not a City preference, and it applies regardless of how sympathetic the request is.”
Olympia offered two alternatives, both of which Spooner said are unworkable. The first was a spot about half a mile down the road on property that has been sold, with the sale closing in 2028, according to Spooner. The second was a concession stand inside the future park.
“I kind of smiled and laughed to myself,” she said. “You have obviously never been to our berry stand in June when the strawberries are on and seen the amount of cars in that parking lot.”
In response, Olympia noted that the first alternative site is available to the Spooners for at least two years, according to the property owner. If the Spooners choose the latter option, a site on Yelm Highway in a plaza would be available to them after construction, with enough parking to accommodate the berry stand.
“On capacity: the plaza sits directly next to a 70-stall lot, with another 98 stalls less than 300 feet away. That’s more parking than the stand’s current location has today,” Olympia stated.
Both sides set to meet Wednesday, but Spooner said every past meeting has ended the same way
Spooner said the city reached out to her and offered to meet Wednesday to discuss a path forward. She said she’s cautiously hopeful but noted that every previous meeting has ended the same way.
“All they ever want to know is, ‘Where are you moving it to, and when are you getting out?’” she said.
Olympia clarified that it has been working alongside the family every step of the way throughout the lengthy process, and Spooners’ claim that the city has only asked when they will leave is inconsistent with the amount of work it has put into finding a new site for the business.
“We’ve been working with the Spooner family at every step of this, from the lease, the concessionaire agreement, the relocation firm, the plaza offer,” Olympia stated. “We understand why this is a hard moment for them. But the idea that the city has only ever asked when they’re leaving isn’t consistent with multiple years of the work we’ve actually put into finding them a place to stay, within the real legal limits of what this land can be used for.
“We’re thankful that after the efforts we’ve made the last several months, the Spooners were finally willing to come back to the table and talk with us,” the city added. “We’re still trying to find a plan that works for them within the constraints. That hasn’t changed, and we hope it won’t.”
Owners ask supporters to join them at Olympia City Hall to fight for the stand’s survival
Supporters of the stand were asked to join the owners at Olympia City Hall on Sept. 16 at 5:45 p.m. in an effort to plead their case for building the park with the berry stand and “let the City Council know how you feel about the city telling us to leave.”
The Spooners have worked together for more than 30 years at the family-owned berry shop and have said that “if this berry stand needs to go, a good possibility we will be done.”
“Tim and I don’t ‘need’ to farm; we do it after all these years as a sense of commitment to our longtime employees and our much-loved community!” Spooner Berry Farms wrote on social media.
In a post on Sept. 1, the company confirmed the end of its 2026 berry season, noting it had sold out of some products due to high demand.
“We are a big part of this community and a ‘community park’ shouldn’t be chasing us away,” Spooner Farms wrote. “We love this neighborhood.”
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This story was originally published on MyNorthwest.com.