PO gets $161 million for new downtown projects
Published 1:30 am Thursday, July 13, 2023
Port Orchard showcased several downtown projects and their whopping $161 million in funding at the City Council meeting July 11.
Development director Nicholas Bond gave a presentation showing the projects and how much they have raised or cost.
“We put together a spreadsheet and added up how much federal money, state money, money from the public, district money and outside agencies” have contributed, Bond said. “Once you add the private development to that, we have over $161 million investment in downtown Port Orchard.”
The federal amount is $24.9 million, state $26.8 million, public $18.5 million, outside agencies $6.5 million and the city $24.4 million.
“The big one everyone wants to talk about is the marina breakwater,” Bond said. “That breakwater is going to protect the marina and also provide electric ferry infrastructure so that you can charge ferries from the breakwater.” The breakwater, which is nearly 50 years old, secured $15.7 million. Port Orchard will look to replace 1,500 linear feet of 12-foot-wide breakwater that protects the marina.
As for the electric ferries, it has raised $13 million. In addition, Port Orchard received $3.7 million for foot ferry charging infrastructure. Port Orchard looks to reconstruct Bay Street in a variety of ways.
“We received a million dollars in federal money and are going to advertise for that project tomorrow to design the final engineering of this project,” Bond said. “We have another $2.2 million for a pathway we have been working on for quite a while.”
Lastly, the city has about $560,000 to do a preliminary engineering study on the pathway. A city hall project has yet to be funded. Bond said the cost of that project will be around $10.9 million to rehab the 30-year-old building.
The community event center received the most money with over $31 million, including $18.5 million from the Kitsap Public Facilities District and $5.5 million from Kitsap Regional Library. The Orchard Street Plaza is planning to be designed for informal gatherings and larg city events.
Port Orchard hopes to host events, children and teen spaces, food trucks, retail stores and more. “We just started design work on this phase and are still seeking funds for this project,” Bond said.
In addition, the council discussed a marina lift station with a new viewing plaza, multi-use trail and building, generator and revised traffic circulation. Lastly, the Port of Bremerton has an environmental cleanup project. $800,000 was funded to remove underground storage tanks and remediate contaminated soil. Once that work is done, Port Orchard plans to develop that land.
