Anyone interested in purchasing prime commercial property on South Whidbey may be in luck.

The WhidbeyHealth hospital district has listed a 4.56 acre vacant property for sale on the real estate website Zillow.

The lot is located on Highway 525 in the Bayview area, just across from the development that includes the Goose Community Grocer.

The minimum price is $727,500. Offers can be submitted through July 6.

State law requires the district to set a minimum price, which has to be at least 90 percent of the average of appraisals from three independent experts.

The property, however, was purchased by the district 13 years ago without any appraisal, the wisdom of which some in the community questioned.

The assessed value at that time was $600,000, but the district purchased it from Verlane Gabelein for $1.98 million.

The hospital bought the property at a high point in the real estate market. Since its purchase, the assessed value of the property tanked. It dropped to $500,000 in 2016 and then suddenly to $130,000 in 2018.

The value edged up to $150,000 in 2020.

A former official in the Island County Assessor’s Office said the assessed value may not reflect the market value since there haven’t been sales of comparable commercial property in years and assessed values have to be based on comparable sales.

Hospital officials initially planned to build a clinic on the property, but moved the project to Clinton instead.

The property can be found on Zillow.com by searching under zip code 98260. It is under “other listings.”

• For more information or to submit an offer, contact Jake Kempton, chief legal officer, at kemptj@whidbeyhealth.org.