The developer behind a long-planned shopping center hasn’t forgotten you, Gig Harbor.
Jon Rose, vice president of real estate at Florida-based Raydient/Rayonier, which owns the Village at Harbor Hill estate, told The News Tribune in a recent interview that “there’s a lot going on behind the scenes” but couldn’t provide any provide an answer. announcements yet.
The $44 million, 18.5-acre business park project at Borgen Boulevard and Harbor Hill Drive would include a Town & Country Market supermarket, banks, restaurants, retail stores and medical services.
A legal battle over transportation costs and the eventual settlement between the developer and the city continued for some time.
By the summer of 2020, Town & Country Markets had abandoned all plans to open a new grocery store there, and two years later it abandoned plans for a new Gig Harbor location.
However, Rose noted that the community meeting held in June on the future of the center, where residents could share their ideas, was “one of the best public meetings I have been to or been a part of because the community came out in a beautiful way. great power.”
Overview of the 2018 floor plan at Village at Harbor Hill in Gig Harbor. The site could undergo revisions, including a multi-family section. Powell Development Company.
About 100 residents attended, The News Tribune reported at the time, with the crowd offering suggestions not tied to high-end grocers, but possibly along the lines of WinCo, as well as the possibility of turning it into a mixed-use site, with housing and retail.
The primary focus, however, he acknowledged, remains winning a grocer, complicated by what ultimately became Kroger-Albertsons’ failed merger attempt.
“With all the turmoil in the market between Kroger and Albertsons and Safeway and all that – people weren’t moving in the grocery business, so there was that,” he recalled of the summer meeting. “And in retail there is much less demand for retail buildings these days.”
To his surprise, the residents had other ideas.
“One of the biggest things for us is to consider doing multi-family,” he said, “and that gives it more of a city center feel. And the city has responded.”
And getting back to that “behind the scenes” thing he referred to earlier in the interview, he added this nugget:
“We have very strong interest from four different grocers.”
What’s getting Rose’s attention these days is another Rayonier project north of Gig Harbor: Port Gamble, in the Hood Canal area of the Kitsap Peninsula.
The clean-up and redevelopment work on a former sawmill site that dates back to the 19th century and closed in the 1990s is now entering the construction phase.
That includes new residential and “cottage” communities, a hotel, approval for winery and brewery development, and more, all while maintaining the city’s New England style introduced in the 19th century.
“It has taken one generation to get ready to move forward with the redevelopment of Port Gamble,” he said. “2025 is the year for us to move forward.”
The News Tribune archives contributed to this report.
