KINGSTON: The Port of Kingston has begun to look at developing two downtown properties into what it hopes will be economic drivers for the community. In a pair of community input sessions Tuesday, port representatives heard a variety of suggestions for the two sites: hotel, pool, museum, condominiums and restaurants were all on a list of ideas. Seattle-based Heartland LLC, the port’s real estate consultant, will give port commissioners financial analysis for a few of the options for both sites, and commissioners will decide on how to proceed from there, port Executive Director Jim Pivarnik said.
“Our goal is really economic vitality for the community,” he said. “How do we put these projects to work?” Both sites are near the community’s downtown corridor. One is a 1-acre parking lot adjacent to Mike Wallace Park along Washington Boulevard. The other, a 2.3-acre site, is a combination of two port-owned residential properties and a parking lot at West Kingston Road and Central Avenue. The sites could become space for the “anchor” retail or restaurant business that Kingston’s downtown area lacks, some said.
“Whatever it might be, that’s what we need to be looking for,” Kingston resident Nancy Langwith said. Such a business could help to draw residents downtown and sustain other businesses during the winter months without tourists, she said. Some of those in attendance wanted to see plans for the two port sites developed as part of a larger strategy for the downtown area. “My biggest concern is that this becomes part of a master plan rather than site-specific on those properties,” Kingston resident Dave Wetter said. “That comes first. What do you want it to look like 10 years from now? Even though you can’t implement it right away, where would things fall?” Any development at the sites won’t happen soon, according to Pivarnik. “This probably isn’t going to happen for three or four years,” he said. The port is studying the sites with $35,000 of grant funding from the state’s Community Economic Revitalization Board and the port’s own $12,000 matching contribution.
