So far, only 3 groups have submitted ideas for downtown parcels
Today is the last chance for developers to submit ideas for redeveloping nine city-owned parcels downtown.
As of Monday, the city had heard from three developers in response to the March 3 request for proposals (RFP).
In the RFP, the city specified as follows:
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• Any proposal would have to square with the city’s design guidelines, the Auburn Downtown Redevelopment Plan and other significant downtown buildings.
• The developer would have to show a clear benefit to the downtown economic and social environment, displaying as well that the project could influence and promote the redevelopment of nearby parcels for the good.
The parcels in question include those at 115 A St. S.E., 117 A St. S.E., 123 A St. S.E, 15 2nd St. S.E., 9 2nd St. S.E., the Gambini block on South Division Street and several parking lots.
“What the city is really after here is one large, holistic and related project, parcel by parcel, block by block,” said Dave Baron, economic development manager for the city of Auburn.
“Who knows how many developers would be involved? It could be one major developer and several juniors,” Baron added.
Last December, the city sent out requests for qualifications to developers interested in building an indoor soccer facility and arcade on the Gambini block and heard from two developers, Arena Sports of Redmond, and Panattoni Development Company, a Sacramento Calif.,-based company with a regional office in Seattle.
The city pushed this legislative session for a change in state law to provide a state sales and use-tax credit for public facility districts located within cities that straddle two counties.
If the city-owned Gambini block were to be designated as a public facility district under the new law, the city would have been able to keep a portion of the money that the state receives in sales tax and apply it to construction of the sports facility. That would have added up to $13 million, $600,000 a year, that the city could have applied to construction. But the legislative session came and went and the city did not get what it had hoped for.
Baron stressed, however, that it doesn’t mean the Gambini block is a dead issue.
“It could be included into whoever or whatever gets back in response to this. Or, after a responsible review, the city could say none of this will work, and we will proceed just with the sports facility as a separate issue on the block,” Baron said.
“I always looked at what we trying to get through the state as extra money, that if we could do a public facility district that would make it a little easier,” said Auburn Mayor Pete Lewis. “We never changed course. The key is going to be that with at least two developers the council gets a chance to make a better choice.”
