Downtown PO: This Could Be the Start of Something Big

With the adoption of Port Orchard’s Downtown Overlay District Plan in September, it was only a matter of time before a viable project materialized that would radically alter the look and feel of the downtown area.

A proposed three-story development on Bay Street that could break ground as early as November has been called, by Mayor Larry Coppola and others, a potential catalyst for the revitalization of downtown Port Orchard. The 35,000-square-foot, mixed-use project at Frederick and Bay streets qualifies for federal New Markets Tax Credit funding to aid economically depressed areas.

The project would include an underground parking garage and three above-ground stories of retail and office space with a rooftop garden. The developers would petition the city to vacate Frederick Street, which would become a courtyard between the two buildings with fountains, trees and public seating. An aerial walkway connecting the buildings would include apartment space, according to preliminary schematic drawings by William M. Palmer Consultants of Port Orchard.

“This is huge,” said Coppola, referring apparently to the significance of the project not its size.

Inevitably, however, those who resisted the height standards agreed upon in the plan will seize on the latter meaning of “huge.”

The plan, adopted September 24, limits/allows building height on the south side of Bay Street to 55 feet with a conditional use permit. On the north (water) side, the maximum height is 39 feet with a conditional use permit. The proposed project, on the water side, would be 39 feet tall.

“What you’re looking at is the very first project that’s going to start the downtown development of Port Orchard,” said David Walden with Prudential Northwest Real Estate of Gig Harbor, who has an interest in the development. “Being the first, it’s going to be scrutinized by everybody. We intend to make it first rate.”

The project involves two buildings, one at 639 Bay – the Corner Deli/Old Jordan’s building – which shows the owner of record as Douglas Zimmermann of Seattle. Mansour Samadpour, the Seattle microbiologist who owns five other buildings in Port Orchard, owns the other at 701 Bay.

Samadpour is pleased to begin taking action on the property he acquired for its development potential, but he said the 39-foot limit put constraints his investment return. There will be no condos in the project, he said.

City officials, developers and property owners are working with the Kitsap Consolidated Housing Authority, the agency that administers the tax credits locally, to draw more funding for downtown development.

Stay tuned.