Where once there was to be a monorail station, now there will be a pocket park.

The Seattle Monorail Project board of directors approved an agreement May 4 to sell the former Morgan Junction monorail station site for $1.3 million to Beveridge Investments, a limited liability corporation owned by Gary Sink, who owns the adjacent Beveridge Place Pub.

Sink agreed to sell the northern portion of the monorail station property, formerly Fauntleroy Autoworks, to the city of Seattle for a future park.

The sale has not closed but the monorail board's vote means the purchase agreement is now under contract, said Vlad Oustimovitch, an Orchard Street Ravine neighborhood resident and recent appointee to the monorail board.

Oustimovitch pointed out that none of the 33 other monorail properties will end up being used for anything related to what monorail planners had in mind for them. The Morgan Junction station site, in the 6400 block of California Avenue between Eddy Street and Beveridge Place, will be the only exception. A public plaza had been planned around the not-to-be monorail station and that is where the future park will be built.

"The only vestige of the monorail will be that little park," said Oustimovitch, who was a monorail supporter. "The monorail is fast disappearing without a trace on our city."

Design of the new 9,000 square-foot Morgan Junction park will follow a series of public meetings to solicit ideas from residents.

Money to buy the land and build the park was budgeted in the Pro Parks levy that voters approved in 2000.

Having a small public space in or near Morgan Junction has been a missing ingredient for years. As a designated urban village, Morgan Junction is supposed to have a park somewhere within a quarter mile.

Neighborhood activists long anticipated the park eventually would be built where the Seattle City Light electrical substation is located, at 42nd Avenue between Fauntleroy Way and Morgan Street.

The substation had been scheduled by City Light to be declared surplus and closed. However electrical needs changed in recent years so now City Light needs the power which the Morgan substation distributes.

There was criticism of the substation site because, at 4,000 square feet, it's small for a city park. The site also is wedged between two busy arterial streets. So Seattle Parks and Recreation started looking around the neighborhood for other sites for a park.

During an informal raising of hands, a majority of people attending a public meeting in mid-April supported Seattle Parks and Recreation acquiring the monorail property in partnership with Sink. Almost as many people didn't want to team up with the tavern owner but still supported a public park on the monorail site.

Sink, who was the highest bidder, plans to remodel the building that previously housed West Seattle Video Vault into a new Beveridge Place Pub. He said he wants to capture the feel of the existing pub, with a sit-down area in front and a game room in back. He plans to move the existing furniture to the new pub, he said.

Other monorail properties in West Seattle are gradually being sold.

Harbor Properties bought the Petco parking lot and the former Chan Clinic, which is where the Junction monorail station had been planned.

Huling Bros. bought back the vacant lot at 35th Avenue and Southwest Avalon Way, which they sold to the monorail project.

A property at 3295 S.W. Avalon Way also has been approved for sale too.

Meanwhile negotiations for purchase of the former home of the West Seattle Herald are entangled in discussions over the value of air rights. That means the volume of space above the property up four stories or whatever height zoning allows.

"We are pleased that this phase of the dissolution of the Seattle Monorail Project has begun," said Beth Goldberg, chairwoman of the monorail board of directors. "Our goal is to complete the property sales as efficiently as possible and apply the proceeds of those sales to the SMP's (Seattle Monorail Project) debt."

Sales of all the monorail properties are scheduled to close by midsummer. Collection of the monorail's motor vehicle excise tax is set to end by July.

Tim St. Clair can be contacted at tstclair@robinsonnews.com or 932-0300.