<< Previous   of   Next >> Herald Staff photo by Dan Bates  (click to enlarge) Bob Gregg sits on a bench in front of Old Milltown on 5th Street in downtown Edmonds Tuesday. The Edmonds developer has received criticism by some for remodeling the old mall and for raising prices on condos that he had to build a second time after an arson fire. Perceptions, however, of this mild-mannered man may be misconstrued.

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• More meetings, perhaps some answers, coming on waterfront 3/14/08

CONTACT THE ENTERPRISE Jocelyn Robinson, News editor jrobinson@heraldnet.com

Port hands development baton over to developer

Bob Gregg wants waterfront plans to start moving ahead

By Chris Fyall
Enterprise editor

Toward the end of a long Port of Edmonds meeting Tuesday afternoon, developer Bob Gregg stood up, walked to the front of the room, and made a five minute speech that marked a turning point in the much-discussed waterfront-area redevelopment project.

Let me lead, he said.

Port officials were so quick to step aside, they could have hurt themselves.

For 18 months, the port has led redevelopment talks with port director Chris Keuss as the face of the project. Now, both parties are anxious for Gregg to take over, officials said.

Gregg purchased the 1-acre Skippers site in December and says he's raring to go. He has hired architects and started conducting soil samples. He hopes a building design can be before the City Council by December, he said. He wants to set an example the other property owners can follow, he insisted.

"Our plans are quite frankly evolving," Gregg said Feb. 12. "But we do not intend to wait to see how the stars align. We intend to work aggressively through the public process."

The port is happy to wait and to watch, said Commissioner Mary Lou Block.

The community's historical -- and continued -- resistance to increasing building heights has made leadership on the project politically difficult.

The 25-acre redevelopment site is roughly bound by Sunset Avenue to the east and the railroad tracks, and stretches from the marsh in the south to Main Street. It is owned by the port, Gregg and Al Dykes' Edmonds Shopping Center Associates.

While the property is zoned for low-slung buildings, the city's comprehensive plan suggests the site could accommodate taller buildings. Urban planning experts have urged the community to consider increasing building heights in exchange for expensive public amenities that could increase waterfront access and link the redevelopment site with downtown.

Cost sharing during the long redevelopment process has been equitable, but Keuss has been the effort's public face, and has spent hundreds of hours meeting with community groups.

Those days are apparently over.

"It will be important to follow (Gregg's) lead and let him be the tip of the (development) spear and for us to be a little cautious," Port Commission President Fred Gouge said immediately after Gregg spoke.

While port officials are happy to hand over the redevelopment baton, Gregg seems equally happy to receive it.

He hinted that if the Skippers-site project goes well, he might be interested in purchasing and developing the port's – and maybe Dykes' – sections, too.

Gregg is not sure what his final Skippers-site project will look like -- "People say you can put the cart before the horse, but I feel like I have a cart, but I don't even know where to buy a horse" -- but said he knows he wants to move quickly.

Architects working on the Skippers project have been told to design 25-33 percent of the site as open space, and to incorporate environmental standards that could make the building the first platinum LEED (for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) building in the region, Gregg said.

Gregg is meeting Feb. 14 with a firm that could provide extensive view-shed analysis data, which would allow citizens to see how a proposed building might change their views, he said.

Whatever happens, it is likely to happen soon, Gregg said.

"We are going to move forward," he said. "We do intend to develop."

Reporter Chris Fyall: 425-673-6525 or cfyall@heraldnet.com