PORT GAMBLE  — Jon Rose heads the real estate arm of Pope Resources, but what he mostly deals in is vision.

Pope Resources hired Rose for Olympic Property Group in 1996 to make the former mill town of Port Gamble a viable business district. The mill had closed and the old town was tired. The houses, most of them built in the mid-1800s, were showing their age. The old theater building was closed for years.

Rose saw Port Gamble’s history as its biggest asset — a mid-1800s company town patterned after the New England home of its founders — and began building on that.

He and his staff restored buildings, recruited retail and office tenants, built an events pavilion, opened a museum, made trails available for public use.

Successes followed; Port Gamble emerged as a regional event and weddings destination, and its renaissance sparked the imagination of conservationists and outdoor recreation enthusiasts.

But there have been costs. Correcting the environmental impacts of 150 years of shoreline wood milling and shipping continues today. And Port Gamble is still subsidized by Pope Resources to the tune of about $250,000 per year. Rose’s challenge is to make Port Gamble pay for itself, and yet allay the concerns of North Kitsap residents as he does so.

It hasn’t been easy. The Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe, which once had a village where the town is now, has been concerned about future land use and potential impacts on the bay. The Tribe has a treaty right to fish and harvest shellfish from the bay. Cleanup efforts have improved the health of the bay, but a geoduck bed is closed because of Port Gamble’s wastewater treatment plant outfall. And as of this writing, Olympic Property Group and the Department of Natural Resources are negotiating a cost-sharing plan for the final cleanup of the mill site and shoreline.

In 2010, a plan, called the North Kitsap Legacy Partnership, was introduced. In exchange for relaxed development rules, Olympic Property Group would make its 7,000 acres of North Kitsap forest land available as public-use open space. Essentially, the plan would let OPG  recoup the cost of the forest land through more development than that allowed by county law. But the plan met resistance from Port Gamble S’Klallam, which feared more pollution of the bay, and the plan fizzled after County Commissioner Steve Bauer, a proponent of the plan, resigned.

Then, the wind seemed to change in Rose’s favor.

The next year, Rose and a coalition of conservationists, including the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe, formed the Kitsap Forest and Bay Project. With Pope Resources’ blessing, Rose gave the coalition until March 2013 to raise money to acquire the 7,000 acres, which is divided into five blocks. Both sides are confident at this point that the shoreline block, the most desired for conservation and protection, will be acquired. Depending on how fundraising is doing by March, the coalition could receive more time to raise money for the other blocks. If not, Pope will begin selling the land off in 20-acre parcels.

And in June, Rose unveiled a new vision for Port Gamble before a packed auditorium at Kingston Junior High School. A marine science center. A hotel. A dock where boats can load and offload visitors. A walkable waterfront area with one mile of waterfront access. New homes in the field that was once the site of worker housing. More dining and offices. An ag district, with a 40,000-square-foot greenhouse, 30 acres of working pasture, and a winery. Covenants that ensure that any new construction is built according to New England design standards.

“It’s just going to get better,” Rose said. “It will be fun, interesting, beautiful — as good for your head as it is for your eyes.”

Rose expects a resolution between OPG and DNR soon; wood waste removal will be completed and creosote pilings removed.

Answering a question regarding Port Gamble S’Klallam acquiring the former mill site, Rose has said, “I’m not opposed to any idea that is compatible with the bay. Our minds are open to it. I think the conversation needs to get serious about it.” Port Gamble S’Klallam is waiting for the cleanup to be completed, and both sides are awaiting appraisals.

Participants in the meeting wrote their thoughts on paper and turned them in. He said the public’s contributions will be considered as the master plan is finalized so it can be submitted to the county by the year’s end.

Rose’s plan was taken favorably. Nancy Langwith of the North Kitsap Tourism Consortium said tourism is the fourth-largest industry in the state, generating $16.4 billion in annual revenue — that’s $400 per household. She said the new Port Gamble will “create an experience worthy of a weekend.” Jerry Kirschner, Langwith’s husband, said economic development will lead to sustainable wage jobs “that will enable people to live and work here. It will provide more support for existing businesses.”

Rose, who’s a musician and singer in his free time, earned a bachelor of science in civil engineering at the University of Vermont in 1985 and a liberal arts degree from University of Washington in 1993.

He worked for Pac-Tech Engineering from 1987-1996, managing an engineering, surveying and land-planning office. There, he honed his project management and business development and marketing skills — skills that would be tested when he joined OPG in March 1996. He became president in 2001. His ability to build a team that breathed new life into Port Gamble — and his experience in land development, from project concept to permitting, construction and sales — has made him sought after for advice.

Pro bono, he helped Viking Avenue commercial property owners develop a master plan; the master plan is not available for public view because it is the property of those owners. But Rose believes in the viability of Viking Avenue, and he set up a meeting between property owners and the Poulsbo Farmers Market, which he saw as a potential catalyst for the beleaguered former auto row.