Developer shares updated concepts for Village at Harbor Hill with city
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Development teams shared two preliminary concepts for the 18.5-acre site.
- Many 2018 permits have expired, and proposed design changes may require amendments.
- Raydient is exploring bringing in new developers while talks continue with grocers.
Developers remain interested in the long-stalled Village at Harbor Hill, though the property owner is exploring bringing in other developers and has discussed making changes to the project’s design.
On May 12, Gig Harbor city staff met with developers to discuss plans for the long-awaited retail site. For years, the city has been in talks with developers to turn the 18.5-acre site at Borgen Boulevard and Harbor Hill Drive into a mixed-use shopping center, with a grocery store, other retail tenants and multifamily housing, The News Tribune reported. The property owner is Raydient Places + Properties, a subsidiary of Florida-based timberland company Rayonier.
Raydient vice president of real estate Jon Rose did not have an updated cost estimate for the project Thursday afternoon, but wrote in an email that earlier estimates of $44 million are “way outdated.”
“It’s very difficult to get many projects to pencil out,” he wrote.
Plans to develop the site go back at least a decade. The project has faced delays in part due to a legal battle with the city over transportation impact fees and difficulties landing an anchor grocer for the site after Town & Country Market pulled out in 2020.
At the meeting May 12, developers shared two preliminary concepts for the Village at Harbor Hill with city staff.
Both concepts “include a mix of neighborhood-serving retail amenities and multifamily housing designed to support the needs of Gig Harbor’s growing community,” a city Department Updates newsletter on May 20 said. “While no final plans have been established, the discussion marked an encouraging step forward for a property that is important to many residents in Gig Harbor’s north end.”
The newsletter also said the city and developers discussed permitting and the process of potentially amending their 2018 development agreement.
City Administrator Katrina Knutson provided more specifics about the discussion in a phone call Wednesday.
The Village at Harbor Hill was fully permitted in 2018, she explained. Since then, many of the project’s permits have expired. Additionally, the developers have proposed changes to the project’s design that may require amending their permitting package and development agreement with the city. A development agreement amendment requires a public process before the city council, according to Knutson.
The city and developers discussed what these amendments could look like “very broadly,” she continued. They’ll iron out the specifics at another meeting, which staff hope to schedule in the next two weeks but haven’t set a date for yet.
Asked about the specific modifications proposed to the project, Knutson referred to The News Tribune to the developers but said she’s comfortable sharing that “the design is modified from what the public has seen in the past,” though it remains “substantially similar.”
“ ... the developer and property owner have really taken into account the public’s feedback for wanting certain retail opportunities, as well as certain housing opportunities,” she said.
The city’s newsletter noted that a second developer, Elevated, participated in the meeting May 12. The newsletter described the company as a “prospective new ownership group.”
In a phone call Thursday, Rose said the company is exploring selling the Village at Harbor Hill to another developer, but not to Elevated. Raydient is exploring “bringing in other development entities,” he said.
Asked for an update on the project, Rose said he reached out to the prospective purchaser but that they aren’t ready to comment or share preliminary site plans at this stage in the process. He encouraged The News Tribune to follow up next month.
As for finding a grocer for the retail center, Knutson said the city is aware that the developers “are in communication with a number of grocers.”
The News Tribune reported last year that the city was considering a multifamily tax exemption (MFTE) program that could help push the project forward. By offering developers a tax break for building affordable housing, the program could help the Village at Harbor Hill pencil out. Rose, the property owner representative, previously told the Gig Harbor City Council that “multifamily developers that we have talked to are supportive of this version of the MFTE.”
The city hasn’t yet established an MFTE program. City staff presented the first reading of an ordinance that would establish an MFTE program in Gig Harbor in April of last year, and the city hosted a town hall on affordable housing last summer that included information about how a local MFTE program would work.
The city is looking at holding a work session in June or July to discuss the MFTE program again and hear feedback from the council, according to Knutson.
She said that the city is aware of how much the Gig Harbor North community has wanted to see the Village at Harbor Hill develop. The project aligns with the city council’s strategic priorities for economic development and diverse housing, she said.
Though the city doesn’t have a policy allowing them to bring the Village at Harbor Hill “to the front of the permitting line, so to speak, it is our civic duty we believe to meet with and help them understand the permitting process, to have it done as expeditiously as possible,” she said.
