University Place leaders are trying a different strategy to get their troubled Town Center project back on track.

For the first time since it envisioned the mixed-use project in 2002, University Place won’t rely on a single developer to turn its dream into reality.

The city will now look to sell the project’s 11 parcels individually instead of in a single, 12-acre chunk. City leaders say the change is a response to the crippling economy, not a white flag indicating the project’s demise.

Mayor Linda Bird said Thursday that at the advice of its real estate consultant, UP decided not to extend negotiations with F+F Development, which it had worked with since April 2008. It was the project’s fourth potential developer in six years.

UP will now rely on Heartland Consulting of Seattle to help find people who will either develop stores and other services on Town Center’s parcels along Bridgeport Way West, or at least lease to someone who will.

Bird said she doesn’t look at Town Center’s new direction as a concession that the mix of retail, civic housing, office space and other services is dead.

The city has secured $21 million in state and federal money, including up to $500,000 a year for 25 years in state sales tax revenue that lawmakers allowed UP to invest back in Town Center.

It also has potential tenants who’ve shown interest but were restricted by the one-developer approach.

The city’s consultant told UP leaders the project is ready to move forward. To continue working on a deal with one developer would have been “irresponsible,” Bird said.

“We want to keep the momentum going,” she said. “This is not a fire sale, where it’s just, ‘Tell us what you want for this land.’ ”

Nate Fishkin, one of F+F’s partners, said Thursday that University Place “needed to make some decisions it had to make.”

He added that banks aren’t lending for large, mixed-used projects during these tough economic times. That’s unfortunate because F+F had tenants interested in Town Center.

“It has nothing to do with the project,” he said via telephone Thursday. “It has everything to do with the economy.”

When asked whether those same tenants would continue to work with the city, Fishkin said that’s something the two sides are working out.

Either way, the piecemeal approach to selling Town Center is the opposite of how UP initially wanted to develop the site.

In 2003, when the UP City Council approved Town Center, the plan was to develop a $100 million project. The city borrowed $9.1 million to purchase land to get it started.

Today, the city’s investment has increased, and so has skepticism from the public.

Town Center’s scope has grown to between $250 million and $350 million, with UP responsible for about $35 million.

The only building under construction is a $25 million library-City Hall building. The city must provide a new Pierce County Library branch by 2011, and it’s likely the City Hall portion of the building won’t be ready then.

Assistant City Manager Steve Sugg said Town Center is facing the same financial challenges as other large commercial projects.

“I don’t think there is a commercial project around that isn’t being reworked,” he said.

Still, UP leaders say they are ready to move forward, work with developers and get Town Center’s long-awaited retail stores open.

In the last month, restaurant tenants have visited Town Center, Sugg said.

The property is ripe for development, said City Councilwoman Debbie Klosowski. The parcels range from 2,700 square feet of retail space to 106,000 square feet.

They also offer underground parking, utilities and proximity to University Place’s busiest strip.

The multiple-developer approach also gives the city more room to negotiate over what it wants built, Klosowski said.

UP’s design standards will help guide the exterior appearance of each building.

The city plans to borrow $18.6 million in bonds this summer to pay off short-term debt and finish construction on the library, which could be ready by fall 2010.

In the meantime, UP will work with its consultant to find developers, and it would love to nab an anchor business that could attract others.

“For me personally, landing an anchor tenant is the point where I say, ‘We made it over the hump,’ ” Bird said.

Brent Champaco: 253-597-8653

brent.champaco@thenewstribune.com

One project, six years, four developers

Here’s a breakdown of how negotiations broke down with each of University Place Town Center’s four potential developers:

 • Robert B Aikens & Associates of Troy, Mich., 2003-04: Retailers liked the city’s first choice, but it couldn’t meet UP’s goal of a 2007 opening.

 • McCaffery Interests Inc. of Chicago, 2004-06: Developer was hired for experience with mixed-use projects, but the two sides couldn’t agree on financial terms or a timeline.

 • Uptown Development, Aaron Lichtman of New York, 2006-08: The city made it further with Lichtman than any of the four, signing an agreement in May 2007 before the deal broke down eight months later. The two sides wrangled over everything from parking to where to place the library to an opening date.

When the two sides severed their agreement in January 2008, the city agreed to pay Lichtman $1.75 million, while it retained drawings, ideas and plans for Town Center.

 • F+F Development, Washington D.C., California, 2008-09: The city negotiated with the developer for more than a year, but a dismal lending market forced UP to try to sell Town Center’s parcel’s individually.

Brent Champaco, The News Tribune