Tag Archives: college marketplace

Hotel planned in Poulsbo’s College Marketplace

Property bordering Poulsbo’s Home Depot offers some of the best views in the city, with Liberty Bay and Mount Rainier visible on clear days.

The hilltop site would provide a dramatic setting for a hotel, which, it turns out, is just what a Seattle hospitality company has planned there.

Hotel Concepts is moving ahead with plans for a 110-room hotel on 5 acres in College Marketplace, according to representatives of real estate firm Marcus & Millichap.

Agent Brian Mayer said Hotel Concepts is in the process of selecting an architect and franchise for the project, and plans to move ahead rapidly with permitting. The Poulsbo site offers easy access to Highways 3 and 305, and is situated near to major retailers and an Olympic College branch:

Hotel Concepts isn’t new to Kitsap. The company operates both the Hampton Inn & Suites and Fairfield Inn & Suites in downtown Bremerton. Its full portfolio includes a dozen hotels in the Seattle area and a Holiday Inn Express in Kona, Hawaii.

Hotel Concepts recently purchased more than 60 acres in the College Marketplace master plan area. Land outside of the hotel site is being offered for sale by Marcus & Millichap. The available property includes a mix of parcels zoned for business park, commercial and residential use.

College Marketplace could once again be a hotbed for development in the near future. Housing Kitsap and Central Highland Homes have plans for a residential neighborhood on the hillside, while The YMCA is considering building a facility next to Olympic College.

Housing Kitsap pursuing 92-unit development near OC Poulsbo

Tad Sooter

Housing Kitsap is once again partnering with a private developer on a plan to create homes in Poulsbo.

This time the non-profit housing authority is looking to build on property it already owns within College Marketplace master plan area, just east of Olympic College (see inset area map).

Screen Shot 2016-06-09 at 3.20.37 PM — Click to enlarge

Housing Kitsap is working with development firm Central Highland Homes on the proposal, which would add 92 residential units to the 6.4-acre site.

Housing Kitsap Executive Director Stuart Grogan noted the property would provide residents easy access to the college campus, large retail centers and the highway. A YMCA could even be built on the same hillside.

“It’s sort of a perfect location,” Grogan said.

According to a preliminary plan presented to the Housing Kitsap board this week, the neighborhood would incorporate 42 single-family homes on small lots, and a three-story, 50-unit apartment building.

Half of the apartments would be rented at market rate. The other 25 would be rented to households earning 80 percent of area median income.

olhava.proposal — A “very” preliminary site plan

Central Highland would spearhead planning and development of both the houses and apartment building.

Housing Kitsap would sell the single-family portion of the property to Central Highland, and proceeds from the land sale would help pay for the multi-family units. The housing agency would secure a tax-exempt bond to repay a construction loan.

Grogan said Central Highland will submit a site plan review application to the city in the near future.

This isn’t the first time Housing Kitsap and Central Highland have joined forces. The two groups worked together to create 40 subsidized “self-help” homes in the nearby Summerset neighborhood.

And this isn’t the only project the housing authority is pursuing in Poulsbo. Housing Kitsap and Sound West Group recently announced plans for a mixed market-rate and affordable housing development on Viking Avenue.

With scant public money available for building affordable homes, groups like Housing Kitsap are increasingly leaning on partnerships with private firms to get projects moving.

“Figuring out ways to work with the private sector will be the wave of the future for all housing,” Grogan said.

This post was updated to correct the total unit count.

Foreclosure sale looms for College Marketplace properties

Tad Sooter

Back in July we reported that much of the vacant land remaining in Poulsbo’s College Marketplace was bound for a trustee’s sale on Oct. 16.

The public auction is moving ahead, according to a notices of trustee’s sale published Thursday.

The sale will include about 40 tax parcels totaling 60 acres. The properties border the Walmart, Home Depot and Big 5/OfficeMax complexes at the interchange of Highway 3 and Highway 305.

According to the notices, the land owner, Olhava Associates of Edmonds, owes more than $17 million in unpaid loan principal MUFG Union Bank, successor to defunct Frontier Bank.

The sale won’t include two parcels identified as 3H and 3I, where a car wash and Starbucks are planned. Those parcels recently sold and the notice of trustee’s sale for the Olhava properties was amended to exclude them.

The notices appeared on pages 10B and 11B of the Sept. 17 Kitsap Sun.

Starbucks, car wash approved in Poulsbo

Tad Sooter

Kitsap is in line for yet another new Starbucks store.

The Poulsbo planning department recently approved an 8,500-square-foot retail building and 2,700-square-foot car wash on Olhava Way, across from Walmart.

A Starbucks store with drive-thru will occupy about 2,000-square feet of the retail building, according to a 10-year lease agreement recorded with the county last week. Starbucks already has a store in the College Marketplace commercial center, so this could be another case of relocation.

The Seattle-based coffee giant has been busy in Kitsap lately. Starbucks opened a new Kitsap Way store last year, followed by a new Bucklin Hill location in July. Another Starbucks is under construction on Highway 104 in Kingston. All of the new stores have drive-thrus.

The site plan for the Olhava Way development lists AT&T and Desert Sun Tanning as additional tenants for the retail space. Like Starbucks, Desert Sun has an existing College Marketplace location.

There is already a big wrinkle for the development plans. A large swath of vacant land in College Marketplace, including the two Olhava Way parcels proposed for the retail and car wash buildings, are set to be auctioned in a foreclosure sale in October.

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