The downtown core of Kingston continues to evolve, revolve and grow at a pace that’s sometimes a head-spinner and other times slower than a Fourth of July slug race.

Here’s a short rundown of what’s going on downtown, followed by more in-depth looks at the Kingston Inn property, Kingston Naturals and the old fire station:

• The Kingston Inn property was sold in June to Rick Lanning who hopes to break ground this fall across the street on the Belmont project, a four-story retail/office/condominium building.

• Three businesses – the Boxley Gallery, Garden Café & Juice Bar and Salsa – opened last spring in three of the four new stores Lanning built in front of the Harbor View building (two have already come and gone in one space that remains vacant and available to lease).

• Kingston Naturals, a long-time anchor of downtown, closed the end of July, and Kingston Nails that was located above will move downstairs to take over the space vacated.

• Bayside Salon moved out of the little building on Ohio just up the street from the marina (the building is vacant and available to lease).

• American Cottage Antique Shop moved out of the newly pea-green-painted little house at the corner of Highway 104 and West Kingston Road, also vacant and available to lease, owned by Susan Rodgers who also owns the adjacent Cleo’s Landing building that is undergoing an extensive remodel and outdoor landscape project.

• The old North Kitsap Fire & Rescue station is still on the market with a reduced price.

• The new Windermere Real Estate office building stakes its claim next to American Marine Bank and will open this fall, possibly with a retail shop on the street level.

• Within walking distance of downtown, the new Kingston High School opens next month.

Add to those projects you can see all the schematics and master plans that the Kingston Stakeholders, Port of Kingston, Kingston Community Center Foundation and others have on paper and there’s no doubt right now this urban growth area is sprouting up as fast as a teenager over summertime.

Kingston Inn property sold to local developer

The property where the Kingston Inn once stood was sold in June to local developer, Rick Lanning and his partner Moga Properties, LLC, for $550,000 from Mike Prestley. The 16,000 square feet of prime waterfront real estate had been on the market about two weeks before Lanning snatched it up, once the Port of Kingston passed on acquiring it.

“I thought for sure the port would get it,” Lanning said. “I didn’t think it was a possibility for me.”

The asking price was less than he thought it was worth, so Lanning contacted his friend Gregory Moga who owns other commercial properties through his Moga Properties, LLC, and they were able to make the purchase in short time.

Prestley had announced plans a year ago to build a restaurant topped with luxury condominiums on the site, but was unable to find enough investors and buyers, and realized it was too expensive to rebuild a restaurant there. The Kingston Inn burned down Sept. 20, 2005.

Lanning has Peter Brachvogel of BC&J Architects, Bainbridge Island, working on a conceptual schematic for a combined condominium-retail building. Once the land use is figured out, Lanning said, decisions will be made about the design feasibility for the site. BC&J also designed Lanning’s four new stores in front of the Harbor View building on Highway 104 that opened this year as well as his Belmont building just down the road on Washington Avenue that is awaiting final building permits from Kitsap County before he can break ground, possibly sometime later this year.

As for whether or not a new restaurant will be built to replace the Kingston Inn, Lanning said, “It’s not going to happen. Show me the parking. It doesn’t pencil in with the county’s requirements for parking.”

The port, he thought, could have put a restaurant on the site because it has other parking available at the marina.

But Port Commissioner Pete DeBoer said they have their hands full with other projects already underway.

“We discussed it several times,” DeBoer said.

“We didn’t buy the Kingston Inn property mainly because the state covets our property so much we’d hate to add to our inventory,” he explained. “We’d hate to spend the money on it then have it taken way by them, either by purchasing it, eminent domain or condemnation,” all possible actions that Washington State Ferries could exercise over the port’s property. WSF still has not renewed its lease with the port.

Lanning said the Kingston Inn site is zoned for six condominiums and ground floor retail space and that’s what he plans on building there, including a large deck facing the water. The condominiums will be set back from the property line along the ferry terminal traffic holding lot to obscure them and provide residents with more privacy. He estimates cost of the condominiums from $550,000 to $700,000.

Prestley’s proposed condominiums were priced up to $1.2 million.

“Nobody except for us thinks $600,000 is a lot for a waterfront condo,” Lanning said, compared to similar markets in Bremerton, Edmonds, Bainbridge Island and Portland.

Within days of acquiring the property, Lanning said other entities contacted him and offered to buy it for thousands of dollars more.

He owns Homeland Construction and, with his wife Michelle, is waiting for the go-ahead from the county to break ground on the Belmont building which will house four retail shops, topped with 6,000 feet of office space, and a third story with four condominiums. He anticipates that the Belmont project will be complete in about 18 months, around the same time that he hopes to move into the design and permitting phases for the Kingston Inn site, the development of which is unnamed at this point.

The Belmont building across the street sits on similar soils and since he’s already gone through much of the permitting for that project, he anticipates fewer surprises when it comes to developing the Kingston Inn site.

“The main beauty of that same sort of dirt across the street is that we already know what the Department of Transportation and county will require,” Lanning said.

Kingston Naturals closes

Kingston Naturals, a mainstay of the downtown core, closed its doors at the end of July after 17 years in business. Owner Marsha Dohrendorf has opened a new shop, Heron’s Nest, with similar merchandise and prices, and more art, in the Winslow Mall on Bainbridge Island.

Dohrendorf had closed Kingston Naturals for a couple months last winter to refresh the interior and redecorate. She also had inventory sales to create more space, and donated a van full of shelving and display fixtures to the new ShareNet Thrift Store.

Dohrendorf started with a shop across Highway 104 above the former marine supply store, which now houses the Kingston Quilt Shop. She also previously had a shop in Poulsbo and one on Bainbridge Island too, but the roof blew off that building. She’s wanted to move back there for awhile now and was going to try and run two stores, but as her lease was up in Kingston the end of July she said, “I just decided at this point I could just handle one store.”

Kingston Naturals was one of very few retail stores in downtown Kingston that managed to make it through the quiet winters and stay open as an eclectic shop to buy everything from handcrafted earrings and handmade paper to books, beads and local art. Dohrendorf often donated fine art items to the Kathleen Sutton Fund, a local organization that supports women with breast cancer.

Dohrendorf said her business did really well until about three years ago when the impact of the loss of three popular downtown restaurants – the Old Kingston Hotel, Kingston Inn and The Restaurant – really decreased the amount of local foot traffic.

Kingston Nails, which leases the space above Kingston Naturals and opened 15 months ago, is moving downstairs this month to take over the space vacated by Dohrendorf. Owned by Ai and Doc Nguyen, Kingston Nails offers nails, pedicures, manicures, waxing and facials.

Ai Nguyen said she hopes having her nail salon more visible to passersby on the street and accessible to older customers will improve business.

Contact Marsha Dohrendorf at her Heron’s Nest Shop in the Winslow Mall, 278 Winslow Way E., Suite 205, Bainbridge Island, (206) 842-2031, www.heronsnest.biz. Kingston Nail Salon is open 9:30 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday through Friday, 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays. Call (360) 297-5099 to make an appointment.

Old fire station still for sale

The old North Kitsap Fire & Rescue station on Highway 104 in Kingston is still on the market after a year, with an asking price of $1.2 million, reduced from the original price tag of $1.4 million. Built in 1978, Station #82 served the North End until 2001 when the new NKF&R headquarters station was built on Miller Bay Road.

The steel-frame building, on .61 acres of prime downtown real estate, has piqued the interest of several investors, but so far it remains in the hands of NKF&R who uses it for storage of emergency vehicles.

“It does take a little bit of time” for investors to come up with the asking price and funding for renovations to suit a new business that would use the building, said Craig Steinlicht, John L. Scott realtor who is listing the commercial property.

The 2007 Kitsap County tax record shows the value of the land at $162,700 with the building at $366,400 for a total assessed value of $529,100.

Gillian Gregory, chairman of the North Kitsap Fire & Rescue Board of Commissioners, said a commercial real estate consultant advised the fire district that the asking price was fair.

“We see this property as the taxpayers’ asset,” she said. “We have to represent the people by getting the best price we can for it. We have such a huge value of representing the taxpayers across the board”

Funds from the building’s sale are earmarked for fire and emergency services, she said, and the district “can’t move forward on special interest groups” who might want the building and property available for community use.

“It’s hard to say ‘no’ to people that we really care about,” Gregory said. “But we have to abide by what the experts tell us and secure emergency services for the future.”

She pointed out that the building is in a beautiful, desirable location with two entry points. Though no offers have been made yet on the property, she said, several parties are interested and very close to coming up with financing the purchase.

“It takes time for people to position themselves.”