Second developer eyes Kelso riverfront for condos
Saturday, November 11, 2006 12:21 AM PST
By Amy M. E. Fischer
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E-mail this articleA developer wants to build condominiums on the Kelso riverfront property across from Three Rivers Golf Course, where the City Council last year agreed to let the Kelso Youth Soccer Club build three full-sized fields.
Developer Tim Sparks has offered the city $720,000 for the sandy, 9-acre parcel, on which he, partnering with the Longview Housing Authority, would build affordable housing and create a community-based area that's "not just for the elite," he said.
The $20 million project would contain mostly middle-income units, with a smattering of low-income units mixed in. Condominium units would be priced up to about $250,000.
"There's a real need in our area for homes our seniors can afford," said Sparks, 50, who has a partner in Vancouver. "This would be nice housing anyone would want to live in. ... We're not building garbage."
As part of the deal, Sparks, who teaches Spanish at Three Rivers Christian School, would buy land elsewhere in town and donate it to the soccer club, he told the City Council on Tuesday.
Council members responded that they're interested in determining the land's real market value, listing it for sale and finding a buyer. But their top priority is making sure kids have a place to play soccer, they said.
"Accommodating the soccer club and their need to provide youth soccer has got to be the number one consideration," Mayor Don Gregory said.
At last week's budget workshop, the council allocated $35,000 for the soccer club to begin construction on a three-field soccer complex on the riverfront property next year. The soccer club is nearly finished building a handful of mod-sized fields for its youngest players on a parcel of city-owned land less than a mile away.
A year ago, the council consented to a 10-year land-use agreement for the undeveloped riverfront parcel under the condition that if the soccer club didn't finish building the fields within two years, the city would take back the property. At the time, Councilman David Futcher expressed reservations about the deal, thinking it would be only a matter of time before an investor wanted to build condos on that land.
Tuesday, Gregory asked the soccer club's director of special projects, Troy Oestreich III, if the soccer club would be content if the fields were built elsewhere.
Oestreich said it was fine as long as the soccer club wound up with three fields and parking for 350 cars, which would require about 10 acres, depending on the shape of the land. The fields would serve "a couple hundred" kids in Kelso's soccer club, plus four other clubs who play against them, he said.
Sparks said his offer of $193,000 per acre was based on the sale price of a nearby 6-acre parcel of land where Kelso resident Joel Davis and his Olympia-based partners are poised to build an upscale 53-unit condominium complex called River Bend. The council noted that the city's parcel likely would fetch a higher price because it fronts the river.
Davis, who also was at Tuesday's council meeting, said his firm, too, would be interested in acquiring the city's 9-acre property, which he said was "probably one of the best kept secrets of Kelso."
"I think that area down there could solve a lot of the revenue problems the city is having," said Davis, whose condo units under construction will start in the $300,000 range.
Sparks said Friday he'd made a reasonable offer and wouldn't get involved in a bidding war.
"If that's the case, I'll just move the project across the river and build the property in Longview," he said. But he'd rather build in his hometown of Kelso, he added.
Longview Housing Authority Director Chris Pegg said her agency is excited about Sparks' proposal because it would add more affordable housing to the market.
The Longview Housing Authority owns a total of 381 housing units in Cowlitz and Wahkiakum counties and oversees state and federal programs providing rent subsidies.
Others seem to be catching on to the market appeal of riverfront condos. Across the Cowlitz River, developer Chuck Bond is in the midst of building a four-story, 39-unit condominium a few blocks south of the Hall of Justice. Rainier Riverfront Estates built a 30-condo development along the Columbia River in Rainier last year.
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