Kent city leaders have been knocked down a couple of times trying to find a developer for the city-owned Naden Avenue property, but they’re back up and ready to swing again.
City staff plans to release a request for proposals from developers this month to market the site, Bill Ellis, city chief economic development officer, told the City Council during his May 6 Economic and Community Development Report.
“It will give a fair way to respond to show your interest as a developer in this property in a really rare campus or build-to-suit opportunity,” Ellis said. “We hope to open that this month and test what commercial demand is, leave it open for a couple of months and we’ll report back who is interested in this opportunity and to meet some of our goals and objectives.”
The Naden property certainly has a growing history of ups and downs when it comes to development proposals. The 7.7-acre vacant property sits north of Willis Street (aka State Route 516), south of West Meeker Street, east of State Route 167 and west of the Interurban Trail.
The city began to purchase the Naden properties in 2002 with plans for an aquatic center. But city leaders later abandoned that plan because of the high costs and then agreed to partner with the YMCA to build a fitness facility on the East Hill that opened in 2019. The city spent $10 million to help build the YMCA.
The decision to not build an aquatic center led to a council choice to try to sell the property to a developer, including a zoning change in 2019 to allow manufacturing uses.
A proposal by a developer to build a hotel on a portion of the property fell through in 2020, partly because of COVID-19 and a pause on new developments.
The city put out a request for qualifications in 2021 to developers and appeared to have a deal with Seattle-based Avenue 55 to build a technology center that would house numerous businesses. But negotiations ended in 2023.
“We got into a negotiation with Avenue 55 but the concept faced challenges of industrial lending,” Ellis said. “We couldn’t quite see our pricing objectives being met and negotiations ended in 2023.”
Since then, the city recently completed a $2 million upgrade at the intersection of Willis Street and 74th Avenue South to provide and improve access to the Naden properties.
The reasoning behind the project was to reduce congestion and create future access for Naden Avenue South to Willis from Meeker Street, all part of a plan by the city to sell the property. The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), because Willis Street is a state highway, required the city to install a roundabout at Fourth Avenue and the 74th Avenue project in order for the city to create access to the Naden property.
WSDOT contributed $3 million toward the $4.75 million roundabout completed in 2020. Federal funds the city received during COVID-19 paid for the 74th Avenue project.
With the recent road project and plans this summer by Puget Sound Energy (PSE) to upgrade its substation adjacent to the Naden properties, Ellis said that should help attract developers looking for manufacturing space.
“It’s a very important upgrade for the site and for its competitiveness,” Ellis said. “We’re looking at new highway access and now power access.”
Ellis said he has learned at economic and business conferences that the region is constrained for power, so a nearby substation can make a difference.
“People have taken power for granted for so many decades and generations in the Pacific Northwest,” Ellis said. “But you can’t really rely on that like you could.”
So will the PSE upgrades help sell the site?
“I consider it a feather in the cap,” Ellis said.
Councilmember Bill Boyce told Ellis after his presentation that he likes the direction city staff is going with the property.
“With the Naden property, we have tried different things and when we realized it doesn’t work, we don’t force it, we stop it and wait,” Boyce said about previous proposals. “We’re at the point now where I think we can try something different. I like what we have done to set this property up and to now take the step to open it up to see what it could be. I totally support this.”
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