The 2017 Fur Ball — the 15th annual fundraising auction for Vashon’s animal rescue organization — will not happen this year due, in part, to construction delays at its longtime venue: Open Space for Arts &Community.

The community event venue will celebrate its tenth anniversary next year and has been undergoing major renovation work since May. Last month, staff said construction had reached the halfway point and a grand re-opening celebration was set for October, but delays are now plaguing the project and four fall events, including the Fur Ball, have been cancelled.

“Based upon the estimates that we had been given, we had scheduled out early October to be able to hold a private donor preview and a grand opening and a 14/48 playwright festival, then on Nov. 4 we had scheduled VIPP’s Fur Ball,” Open Space Executive Director Amanda Westbrooke said. “Due to unexpected delays, none of that is happening. It’s all been pushed back.”

She said they are now hoping to be open by the first of the new year.

“We are renovating an existing building, not building from the ground up, so you find out things that you didn’t know before,” she explained. “It’s one of those things where you tear down a wall and say, ‘How does this all fit together with what we want and what the community said (it) wants.’”

For Vashon Island Pet Protectors (VIPP), the delay means the organization needs to find another way to raise the $100,000 — nearly 40 percent of the organization’s annual budget — that the Fur Ball event normally brings in. VIPP President Geoff Fletcher said he and the VIPP board discussed alternative venues and alternative dates, but decided against both. He said the event sells out every year and normally draws between 300 to 325 people.

“The O Space has been terrific to work with. They provided a really good venue for us, it just didn’t work out this year,” he said. “It’s not possible to find another venue of that size. It’s a lot of fun and we really celebrate the volunteers and just didn’t think we could do that in a smaller, more limited space.”

As for a different date, he said the auctioneer, caterer and other event details were already set for Nov. 4 and the timing of the event is important from both a community perspective and a donor perspective.

“The time of year … is important. Thanksgiving doesn’t work and then it’s Christmas and then the new year and people don’t have money to spend,” he said.

With so many organizations on the island holding their auctions, it’s important “not to step on each other,” Fletcher said.

“If we get to spring we step on the Harbor School. And the concern is not just stepping on each other, but also donors getting auction fatigue. All of those factors come into play,” he explained.

The organization is still planning to hold a fall online auction and is considering “alternative approaches to ensure VIPP can continue the level of work and service we have provided to islanders for more than 30 years,” Fletcher said in a statement.

Open Space’s Westbrooke said the venue will be donating items to the auction, as well as giving VIPP a discount on the space for 2018’s Fur Ball.

“We are so committed to continuing the rich history of community partnerships that we have and VIPP is the pinnacle of that,” she said. “VIPP doesn’t have a place to have their home auction. We are trying to give them a soft landing right now.”

VIPP provides veterinary bill assistance for islanders, low-cost spay and neuter clinics, low-cost micro-chipping and care for relinquished dogs and cats. The organization also runs a rescue shelter for pets and handles adoptions, as well as lost-and-found pets.

Fletcher admitted that the organization sometimes receives pushback for the amount of money it raises for non-human causes, but he believes VIPP’s mission is very much about humans.

“I have never gotten a call from a dog or a cat, it’s always people,” he said. “These are people we help. We work for the whole community. Police have called us and they have someone living out of his car that they have to take to jail and the person cares only about what happens to their animal. Animals are really important to people.”