KRL commits $4.8 million to PO community center project

Published 1:30 am Friday, July 28, 2023

The city of Port Orchard and Kitsap Regional Library have come to a long-term agreement to jointly fund the remaining costs of the future Port Orchard Community Event Center, a building the library plans to partially occupy.

Both the City Council and KRL’s Board of Trustees voted July 25 in favor of the agreement, which will split the financial responsibility of the remaining $9.6 million ($4.8 million each in initial capital contributions) in what is now estimated as a $28.1 million project.

The majority of the funding was secured from the Kitsap Public Facilities District in agreements dating back to 2019.

The agreement establishes a cap for KRL at $5.5 million in the combined initial and final capital contributions that can be provided for leftover or change order costs. Any amount above that would need board approval.

“It’s just such a tremendous opportunity, long-awaited,” KRL board president Stephanie George said. “It really is Port Orchard’s turn for what will be cornerstone development to hopefully change and transform an entire community.”

The agreement marks the next step in the revitalization of a portion of downtown Port Orchard, including the building of a new headquarters for Kitsap Bank and the raising of a portion of Bay Street, among other things. It also sets the framework for a future lease agreement as KRL sets its sights on relocating from its location on Sidney Avenue into a roughly 6,000-square-foot space inside the approximately 26,000-square-foot event center.

The agreement does not finalize the lease but indicates some of the conditions brought about by the shared capital funding, including a commitment to 40 years of leasing the space for just $1 annually.

City attorney Charlotte Archer said the agreement would be “a commitment from the library to be (the city’s) anchor tenant, if you will, within that community event center.”

Mayor Rob Putaansuu continued to hype the city’s main circle of projects, saying, “The community is really really excited about the community center, the new library and what we’re going to achieve downtown.”