SOURCE: Kitsap Sun
BY: Rachel Anne Seymour
POSTED: Jun 11, 2015
POULSBO — Poulsbo has agreed to sell its old police station for $900,000 to developers planning a multistory building with retail shops and apartments.
Sound West Group signed a letter of intent with the city in December to purchase the 0.57-acre property at 367 NE Hostmark St.
The price of the property had been reduced from $1.05 million to $950,000 at that time.
While the 3,800-square-foot building is vacant since the police department moved to City Hall on Moe Street, the small parking lot is being used for public parking.
Sound West Group’s development likely will have underground parking and must provide one parking spot for every apartment, Mayor Becky Erickson said.
Developers will have to provide parking for shoppers.
The city listed the old police station site as having “panoramic views of Liberty Bay and Front Street,” next to a main bus line and neighbors historic downtown and the Port of Poulsbo.
There also is an option to have an entrance to the property from Fjord Drive, which could help with parking, Erickson said.
About half of the property is in the shoreline zone, meaning the building can only be 35 feet (two to three stories) tall. The other half of the property can have a building up to 45 feet high with underground parking, possibly providing another story.
No designs have been submitted to the city.
“This is a sales agreement,” Councilman Jeff McGinty said. “So they could still change that site plan. That is their concept.”
Even if the concept changes, the development has to have a commercial aspect, Erickson said.
“That’s the nature of the downtown code in that location,” she said.
The mixed-use building would be similar to the plans for old City Hall on Jensen Way just off Front Street, which the city started negotiations on selling for $1.2 million to a Bainbridge Island developer.
Both developments would have retail space on the ground level and apartments on the upper floors.
Although the city has agreed to eventually demolish old City Hall, Sound West Group — based in Bremerton — will be responsible for demolishing the vacant police station.
The company has developed several buildings throughout Kitsap, including REI in Silverdale, said Erickson.
It also is responsible for developing the Spyglass Hill apartments near downtown Bremerton.
Site work on the $15 million, 80-unit Spyglass project has started.