WinCo? Trader Joe’s? Mixed-use? Village at Harbor Hill developer updates residents

Jon Rose was not expecting Gig Harbor residents to tell him they’d like a WinCo, but that’s what happened this week.

Rose presented to about 100 residents June 11 at a community meeting about the long-stalled Village at Harbor Hill business park. He’s the vice president of real estate for Raydient/Rayonier, the property owner.

It’s not that the crowd unanimously demanded a grocer with lower prices like WinCo, but some did ask for it specifically.

The crowd’s openness to the idea, as opposed to the sort of specialty grocery store that the developer has been chasing for years as an anchor tenant, surprised Rose.

“I didn’t think I’d hear someone say: ‘We really want WinCo,’” he told The News Tribune after the meeting. “Now we’re going to be more open-minded.”

What surprised him perhaps even more, he said, was “the audience’s understanding of mixed-use, and how it would be a benefit to the plan.”

Residents came with examples of “project after project where they’ve seen it work,” he said.

Rose warned at the start of the meeting at Swift Water Elementary School that he wasn’t there with any bombshells.

“It’s just an update,” Rose told the crowd. “I wish I had some amazing news.”

He talked about the history of the site and the plans developed for it along the way. The $44 million, 18.5-acre project at Borgen Boulevard and Harbor Hill Drive has faced serious challenges in recent years.

The idea for that area of town, he said, was for a self-contained community — a place where a kid could wake up, walk to school nearby, then walk to the Y later in the day.

The Village at Harbor Hill was designed as a grocer-anchored retail site, he said. Without a grocer, smaller shops in the plan wouldn’t last.

There had been hope for a Town & Country Market grocery store. The development was close to 80-percent leased when things fell apart.

Rose told the crowd the “only disagreement we have had with the city of Gig Harbor” is over traffic-impact fees.

A settlement with the city took a few years, The News Tribune reported, and Town & Country Markets pulled out of the project in 2020.

Rose told the crowd it’s not true that that conflict is what killed the project. It was just one more burden, he said, that the project couldn’t handle.

Meanwhile, consolidation in the grocery world has changed the landscape. Safeway and Albertsons merged. Amazon bought Whole Foods. Now Kroger and Albertsons are seeking approval to merge.

That industry consolidation is a challenge when it comes to the Village at Harbor Hill, Rose said.

“Of course they’re going to get rid of stores, not add stores,” he said at the meeting.

However, they’re “continually trawling for grocer interest,” he said.

They’ve had nibbles, they’ve had hard bites, and they’ve been waved off completely by some, he told the crowd.

He wanted feedback from residents on next steps.

“Do we keep waiting for a grocer?” Rose asked the crowd. “Would people be happy if there was a lesser-quality grocer?”

He wanted to know if they’d only be happy with a specialty grocer (like Town & Country), and he wanted to get their thoughts on a mixed-used development where residents could shop and live.

He was honest about the fact that Raydient/Rayonier can’t sit on the property forever if a project doesn’t get traction.

“There’s a chance you’ll see a ‘For Sale’ sign on it,” he said.

City administrator Katrina Knutson told the crowd that it’s rare for a developer or property owner to speak in front of constituents, and she thanked Raydient’s representatives for doing so.

Then they took questions.

‘There’s no idea we wouldn’t look at’

Early on, people wanted to know if they could get a Trader Joe’s. The developer confirmed that’s one of the many grocers they’re still speaking with.

“Easy people,” Rose told the crowd, when there was audible excitement.

Later, Knutson told residents that someone who works for Trader Joe’s tapped her on the shoulder during the meeting about a possible approach to take with the company.

“See, community meetings work!” she quipped.

To be clear: The city has reached out to Trader Joe’s multiple times in recent years with no luck.

“We have repeatedly been told Gig Harbor is too close to their University Place location for their business model,” Knutson wrote The News Tribune in an email earlier this month, before the meeting.

Resident Alice Paoletti asked the Village at Harbor Hill developer to look at a specific mixed-use development, the European Village in Palm Coast, Florida, that she said is thriving without a grocer. It’s a gathering place for the community, she said.

Rose said banks haven’t had any idea what to do with mixed-used developments in the past. But as those developments are increasingly in demand around the country, that financing landscape is starting to change, he said.

Another resident asked if WinCo had taken a look at the Village at Harbor Hill project. Some said that could be good for younger families in the area, among others.

“We’re all going to become WinCo customers soon,” one resident said, referring to inflation.

“Chicken is chicken,” he said, whether it’s from a specialty grocer or not.

One resident worried about the traffic that would come with something like a WinCo, and how those cars would impact the many children who walk to school in the neighborhood.

The parking necessary for a WinCo, in particular, would be a challenge, the developer said.

Council member Le Rodenberg made the point at the meeting that Kitsap County shoppers already come to Gig Harbor and that a grocer with lower prices could appeal to that demographic, too.

One of the many ideas residents asked about is whether the developer had considered turning the area into a high-end outlet shopping center? Or bringing a UW Medicine Clinic to the area? Or an REI? Residents clearly said that they wanted a really nice restaurant to be part of the Village at Harbor Hill plan.

One asked what the timeline would look like if a grocer is found to anchor the development.

“Two years, if someone said tomorrow: ‘Let’s go,’” Rose said.

And that’s if they don’t need to make a bunch of changes to the site plan.

That sounded like a long time to Paoletti, who moved to the area six years ago and has been waiting.

“We were not aware of what was happening for the last five years,” she told The News Tribune after the meeting. “... No news is bad news in my mind.”

A live theater is something she’d love to see in the area.

All the project needs to thrive is an In-N-Out Burger, someone joked during the meeting.

“There’s no idea we wouldn’t look at, really,” Rose said as attendees told him what they’d like to see happen to the property.

He said residents can reach him at jon.rose@raydient.com.

‘We’re not afraid to try something new’

Knuston, the city administrator, was pleasantly surprised by how many residents came to the meeting. Attendance at city meetings since the pandemic has been low, she said, and outcomes are better when more residents show up.

She was also excited that they came with specific ideas.

“It’s good to hear what people who live here desire,” she said.

When crowds do turn out for a meeting, it’s generally when they’re upset about something contentious, she said. To get so many residents coming out to talk about a vision for their neighborhood is special.

Maybe such meetings between residents and developers is a model for others to start using, she said. COVID changed the world, she said, including how cities interact with the public.

“We’re not afraid of trying something new that’s out of the box,” Knutson said. “We’ll definitely do it again.”

News Tribune archives contributed to this report.