Spooner Berry Farms has a new home on Yelm Highway, just down the road from the spot where Sue and Tim Spooner sold berries for 43 years.

Real estate broker Tom Schrader told The Olympian that the Spooner family signed a lease to set up their stand at 2915 Yelm Highway Southeast, as first reported by The Olympian on Friday, Oct. 16.

The new site sits just west of the stand's former location at 3327 Yelm Highway SE, where the city of Olympia is building Jolene Unsoeld Community Park.

Schrader said he owns the 9-acre property at Yelm Highway and Rich Road. A burger truck called Buns of Glory, a Mexican food stand, a shaved ice business and a seasonal fireworks stand already operate there. He said the site was once a former grange dating to 1908.

The move comes after the Spooners' concessionaire agreement with the city expired Oct. 1. The city purchased the 86-acre park property from the Zahn family in 2018 for $10.7 million, The Olympian previously reported. The Spooners had leased the land from the Zahns before the sale and then from the city.

Olympia Parks, Arts and Recreation director Sylvana Niehuser said at the Sept. 15 council meeting that construction permits require crews to close direct access from Yelm Highway and reroute traffic, The Olympian reported. State and federal grants funding the project also restrict how the property can be used, she said.

The Olympia City Council approved a $17.7 million construction contract with Active Construction Inc. for the park's first phase, The Jolt News reported. The bid came in about 26 percent below the staff estimate. Construction is expected to take 18 to 24 months, with the park slated to open by late 2028.

The planned park will include a synthetic turf soccer field, 13 pickleball courts, a playground, basketball courts, a dog park and a maintenance facility.

Nearly a dozen residents spoke at the Sept. 15 council meeting urging the city to keep the stand on the park property, The Olympian reported. Council member Robert Vanderpool said he had received about 300 emails in one week about the stand. Council member Paul Berendt said he had been going to the stand for 31 years.

The city had offered the Spooners several alternatives, including a seasonal stand in the future park's plaza once construction is finished and paying to relocate the stand to two nearby sites.

Sue Spooner told The Olympian on Oct. 2 that the park plaza option was years away and that by then they would have reestablished elsewhere.

"I don't want all this drama," Sue Spooner told The Olympian on Friday, Oct. 16. "We just like to raise our berries, sell our berries, and so we found a new spot."

Schrader said the lease is flexible because he is trying to sell the property. A future buyer could keep the stand or require another move, but the Spooners will have space there for at least a couple of years, he said. Lease terms were not disclosed.