600 West Holly Street Project

The vacant brownfield site just west of Maritime Heritage Park on Holly Street is owned by the City of Bellingham, with management of the property by the BPDA. The BPDA Strategic Plan advocates that this site could be used for resource-based development related to fisheries or agricultural businesses. These uses, which may be either interim uses until future development feasibility for more urban uses improves, or permanent, would be consistent with the nature of the site, serve to attract visitor traffic to the area, and minimize conflict with current uses in the area that are incompatible with more urban development uses. Preference would be for uses that would contribute to the diversity of the community's economic base and strengthen existing economic sectors.

Uses of the 2.2-acre parcel for which environmental clean-up and remediation has been partially completed for future redevelopment will be determined and per requirements of the Consent Decree issued by the Department of Ecology.

2013 Work Plan: In order to move forward with redevelopment, according to Bellingham Municipal Code, the City's Real Estate Review Committee would need to meet and a public hearing would need to be held to determine how best to dispose of the property. This process should be complete by June. In July, the BPDA would issue an RFP for prospective developers and allow a 3 month response time. Once the City and BPDA have reviewed any proposals received, a developer would be selected, and the BPDA and City would enter into a Letter of Intent with that developer, likely in December 2013 or January 2014.

Following the execution of the Letter of Intent, the BPDA and City would draft a purchase and sale agreement or lease and the developer would begin its due diligence process. This would most likely occur in April 2014. A Memorandum of Agreement would need to be prepared for the developer or joint venture in July 2014 before development could begin.