But wait, there’s more. Even after nearly 200 apartment units open in downtown Bremerton in the next year, there are more projects planned around the corner.
The next one is located on the corner of Warren Avenue and Burwell Street. Remember that fire in late September (see photo) that damaged the boarded-up town homes there? It may not be long before bulldozers take them all out entirely and replace them with a 25-apartment complex.
The 1010 apartments, planned by the same developers as the ones wrapping up 71-unit 606 project down the street, have recently won approval from the city’s design review board. PJ Santos with Lorax Partners said there’s no timetable yet for construction.
The project spans four parcels between 1002 and 1018 Burwell Street, each currently owned by Diamond Parking. Lorax plans to buy the properties when construction looms.
In terms of design, the project cannot be more than 40 feet high. The Navy is asking for that limit along the city’s border with Naval Base Kitsap and the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard as a matter of security.
So why is downtown Bremerton getting so much attention from developers? Those I’ve talked to give three main reasons: the Seattle economy is bursting at the seams, the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard is home to 13,000+ jobs (and federal contracts) and apartment vacancies in Kitsap County are nearly nonexistent.
Here’s a status update about the projects going around downtown. These three are a go:
The 606: Pre-leasing has begun on the $9 million project, which is scheduled to open Dec. 1, according to a Facebook post. (Thanks to Kitsap Sun Business Reporter Tad Sooter for the update.)
Spyglass Hill: Work is progressing on the $15 million, 80-unit project on Highland Avenue. While it was supposed to open in January originally, later in 2016 is a forgone conclusion due to some earlier delays.
The Monterey: The 48-unit project by longtime Kitsap County resident and developer Dale Sperling (who hasn’t disclosed the price tag) at the former Nite Shift Tavern and Evergreen Upholstery is making its way through the design review board; Sperling expects construction in early spring.
Two other developments are still clouded in uncertainty:
The Towers: The massive condo development on Washington Avenue at Sixth Street, pushed through by developer Mark Goldberg but now owned by Absher Construction, has been quiet for some time. I’ve heard a plan to rejig the development to include apartments, a restaurant and even a hotel, but nothing has come to fruition. The developers did pay more than $200,000 to bury power lines on the street as part of the Washington Avenue project.
Evergreen Pointe: The 104-unit complex would straddle Evergreen-Rotary Park on Sheldon Boulevard. This was also once a project owned by Mark Goldberg, but no more. I’ve talked to Kingston developer Trish Williams, who owns it now, and she is optimistic about it moving forward. But nothing is set in stone as yet.
Are any of these developments going to pay the same tax rate as all other residential units in Bremerton or are they getting the “special” rate?
Good question, Jane. I will ask.
OK, here’s what I have learned: The 606 and Spyglass development have the OK from city officials for what’s called the Multifamily Property Tax Exemption (MPTE). Evergreen Point has also applied for it, but wouldn’t get the OK until the building permit is issued for the project. There’s an 8-year version and a 12-year one, and both of those developments have it for 12.
Both the 1010 and Monterey’s developers know about the exemption but have not applied as yet.
Kelli Lambert with the city told me that the exemption applies only to the “housing” portion on the property taxes. The land is still taxed. Also, sales, utility and Real Estate Excise (REET) taxes are still levied, as are fees for utility hookups.
The Kitsap Community Food Co-op is currently ramping up their volunteer effort to open a full service grocery store in Bremerton. We are in the need for people who have project management skills and fundraising skills. If you have these skills, and are moved to greatly improve your city through the use of your skills to open a co-op grocery store please contact Kevin Koski. E-mail: kevin@kitsapfood.coop
I am curious as to the parking requirements these new projects will entail. Will full parking be available for every resident of the new facilities? Will that mean each complex will have its own parking garage or parking lot? Or does it mean the city and developers think most of the new tenants will walk to work or shop and will have no need of a vehicle? Parking downtown can be a challenge and can be expensive if you overstay your 2 hour limit. How does Bremerton plan to deal with the potential of hundreds of cars that will virtually live downtown along with hundreds of new residents? How is Bremerton balancing their “pedestrian friendly” downtown with the potential influx of hundreds of new residents? Not all will walk to work or the grocery store.
Questions a lot of us who are residents and live close enough to downtown to be affected have been asking for sometime.
Even worse, getting commercial vehicles with freight in and out of downtown and the east side is set to get a whole lot worse logistically and increasingly more expensive economically.
The plan being pushed around by Public Works is to continue to narrow streets that are the last of the main thoroughfares from the main highway corridor down to one lane each direction with extended sidewalks and bike lanes. 11th, 6th and Naval are all on the proverbial and actual chopping block.
Freight and commercial vehicles will have significantly less real estate in which to navigate and increased competition for that real estate as the shipyard and ferry traffic is forced into a deliberate bottleneck. Time is money in the shipping industry and consumers end up paying a higher price or experiencing limited availability to the goods they need when access is limited in the way it is being planned.
Roger,
In this newest project, there looks to be 25 spots. As I recall, the ratio on most of these projects is a parking spot per unit, with the exception of the Monterey, which has 22 spots for 48 units (but the Harborside parking garage is across the street).
-Josh
In general I think the MPTE was a good idea. Clearly it is helping to push some of these projects through or at least advance their schedules by altering the payback period of these investments.
I do have a question though: Since the 606 is built atop a city parking garage, does the owner of the building have to pay any property taxes at all? If you don’t own the land, how would you pay taxes on it? Didn’t the city pay to build that garage as well? It seems in the case of the 606, the owner/developer got all his foundation work paid for and now may be getting a FANTASTIC tax deal.
Also, the bot-verification question needs to be written by somebody that passed 8th grade science class. Water can be both a solid or a liquid depending on its state.
David,
You raise an excellent question. I will get an answer on that.
-Josh
PS — good point about water.
Thanks for the great work on this blog Josh; I really enjoy following it.
I was only kidding about the water, sarcasm doesn’t work too well online, the question made me laugh though. Look forward to hearing what you found out.
-David
The answer, it turns out, is that the developer (Lorax) does actually own the commercial “pad” that the apartments are built on. So they are obligated to pay the land portion of property taxes during the first 12 years there.
Thank you for your kind words, David!
-Josh
Water tangent: Haha. I never considered the fact that I didn’t specify temperature or pressure in that question. Room temperature is now stated. (Everyone will have to just assume standard pressure.)
It’s great that Bremerton is growing again–but seems all the additional projects may discourage the single family homes near downtown to be restored back to owner occupier if the focus is only on more apartments with insufficient parking…. Not unlike what has/is taking place in many (once quaint) Seattle neighborhoods.
Also there has to be a realization that people will always want to own at least one car & they will need places to park & drive them. And not all drivers care about property rights, or follow one-way signs or speed limits now–we can’t expect it won’t get worse when 1000+ more move into town. The “walkable” downtown-residential area may become too dangerous to walk in if the road plans, signage & rule enforcement don’t keep up with the building pace.
Just heard the other day that the Spyglass project is not adding the parking as promised within its development plans that were presented to the the public. So where will these new tenants park? Highland is already at near capacity for on-street parking now.
Is anyone planning a multi-story garage over one of the existing lots (e.g. 6th & Highland) to support all this new growth and the cars that come with it?