POULSBO — Even before the official Request for Proposal for Little Norway’s city hall was made public, several groups were reportedly lining up to take a crack at the project.

As members of the Poulsbo City Council and Mayor Kathryn Quade met on Jan. 27 at the Poulsbo Fire Department for their annual retreat, discussions about the potential for public/private partnerships shed light on the project.

After the Nov. 7, 2006 advisory vote to keep city hall downtown, Quade advocated exploring the idea of a partnership instead of the city constructing the building by itself. However, city officials were uncertain whether the private sector was even interested.

According to Quade, it is, and several developers have already expressed an interest in the project.

“We want the RFP, so we will have a lot of options,” she said.

Among those possible options are building a municipal campus as part of the Poulsbo Place II development, she said.

“Dave Smith and Mike Brown (of Poulsbo Place II) have been working with the post office to see about moving (the Jensen Way and Iverson Street building) and are also working with Martha & Mary about their future plans,” Quade said.

That movement might allow for the possibility of relocating city hall in that general vicinity, she said.

Others who have expressed an interest in the project are Opus NW, which is building condominiums in downtown Bremerton with the Kitsap County Consolidated Housing Authority, the housing authority itself, and other developers from outside Kitsap County, Quade said.

“Three of the council members and the mayor have quite a bit of information about where we are with the city hall project,” Planning Director Barry Berezowsky said, indicating councilmen Dale Rudolph and Ed Stern, and Councilwoman Connie Lord, all of whom serve on the city’s long range planning committee.

The city has also been working with Bremerton’s economic development director Gary Sexton, the KCCHA’s Gary Tusberg along with city attorney Jim Haney to develop an RFP that will provide the most flexibility for developers submitting plans for the new city hall, Berezowsky said.

If the housing authority were to submit the best proposal, the project would move into a whole different realm, because it would be a public/public partnership, Stern said.

Despite his enthusiasm for the partnership proposal, Stern also expressed concerns about further delays in the city hall project.

The $5.1 million in bonds the city issued in December 2005 to build city hall on 10th Avenue have specific deadlines for their usage. If they aren’t used in a timely manner, the city will be forced to pay penalties, Stern said.

“We might, by default, turn to 10th Avenue to give us time to get things done,” he said.

Rudolph echoed Stern’s concerns and said that a final decision on how to proceed with the project must be made by April.

“We can say no to all the RFPs, but then our only choice is a public works project and we will have to do it ourselves,” Rudolph said.

Even though the project has taken longer than anticipated, Quade said she still believes it can happen sooner rather than later.

“I want to be in a new city hall in two years,” Quade said.