Local artist Clae Welch operates his business out of the historic Terry Building in downtown Port Townsend, which he purchased for $1.1 million in 2018.

Today, Welch said he is investing all the profits from his business into rehabilitating the building and restoring it to its former glory, with hotel rooms on the top floor, his tattoo studio on the main floor and a bar and live music venue in the basement where the Upstage Restaurant and Bistro once operated.

Most recently, Welch was the recipient of a $40,000 loan from the City of Port Townsend to fix damage to the roof and parapet sustained in a windstorm that knocked the northwest corner corbel off the building.

The money will pay for scaffolding, brick and mortar work and new parapet wall. The work is expected to take about a month to complete and will start later in the spring.

The loan was approved unanimously by the Port Townsend City Council at its regular meeting March 2.

The loan money is available through the Port Townsend Main Street Program and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development program called the Community Redevelopment Block Grant.

The loan is designed to help building owners in Port Townsend’s historic district restore and preserve the city’s historic buildings. The Terry Building, which sits in a 2,000-square-foot footprint, was built in 1890.

In the past 130 years, it has been home to an electric company, a telephone company and a tailor shop on its main floor, a boarding house on its top floor and a Chinese laundry in its basement, according to the Jefferson County Historical Society.

Welch said he hopes to continue the building’s tradition of being a boarding house by reopening the top floor to overnight stays with five small hotel rooms.

Construction on the top floor has been ongoing since last summer with two rooms currently ready for guests. Welch said he is working with the city to finalize the details before he can open for business.

The plans for the basement, as a renewed bar and live music venue, are currently just ideas, and the space is being used as storage while the rest of the building undergoes construction.

Visitors to the Washington Street storefront space and to the top floor who remember it when it once held the Candle Shop will surely find it hard to recognize with all new finishings, flooring and interior design elements. They incorporate a modern and minimalist color palette with geometric shapes and natural wood grains.

Welch said he even has ideas for use of the outdoor space behind the building down the hillside, which is now just an anarchic gravel parking lot.

This master plan for the property is all taking place as Welch operates his main artistic business, Town’s End Tattoo, out of the Washington Street retail space. Besides the city loan, which Welch will have to pay back at a 5% interest rate over 10 years, the rest is funded entirely out of pocket.

The loan was labeled as emergency funding, said Mari Mullen, executive director of the PTMSP at the March 2 City Council meeting.

This is because damage to the parapet wall has left it so unsound that when a contractor touched it, it visibly swayed, Welch said. They plan to begin construction as soon as possible to prevent more damage.

Welch has been tattooing for more than 25 years, and if the awards he’s won across North America and Europe are any indication, he’s at the highest level of his profession.

Welch not only provides the Jefferson County community with tattoos that are among the best quality, but he is also a destination for travelers seeking tattoos from around the world. He’s had clients drive from all over the U.S. to Port Townsend and fly from places all over the globe including Paris, China and the UK.

He said he sees what he does every day as an extension of Port Townsend’s prolific arts community, in its many forms, and he sees his personal and financial investment in the Terry Building as a project the community will enjoy once complete.

“Fixing up an old Port Townsend building will be one of the biggest stories of my life,” he said. “This is going to be one of the most artistic rebuilds of a Port Townsend building yet.”