The Burien City Council's agenda for their June 4 meeting included the City of Burien repurchasing the three undeveloped parcels of Burien Town Square from Urban Ventures Burien, LLC, as the City claims the current owners have not come through in a timely manner to develop the parcels. Those parcels can be seen on this map at top, north of the condo development & library, and right, to the east.
City Council unanimously votes YES:
Burien Mayor Brian Bennett told the Highline Times Friday night that the City of Burien plans to put forward a resolution, 334, to repurchase the three undeveloped Burien Town Square parcels. He said the matter would be discussed at the upcoming June 4 City Council meeting, and explained that the meeting's agenda outlining this is now posted on the City of Burien's website here. Scroll down to pages 49-54 for details on this link.
"On Monday we are going to consider a resolution to repurchase Town Square," said Mayor Bennett at King County Council member Joe McDermott's annual bowling party at Roxbury Lanes. "If the Council supports it we will file an action. This just became public when we published our agenda for the Monday meeting. It's a pretty big deal. The current developers have not been responsive and are in breach of their obligations.
"The goal is to support businesses downtown," he added. "We want development of that property so that we have high residential density in the downtown area. Hopefully it will positively affect all of the businesses downtown there, including the condo sales. Once we get those properties developed, I think those condos will become much more valuable and it's going to become a very vibrant downtown scene once we get those properties developed."
The motion, in the pdf, states that:
In 2002, the City purchase the Town Square property at fair market value of $4,050,000 and invested significant public resources in constructing and maintaining transportation and park facilities in the Town Square. Following a Request of Qualifications process, the City sold the Town Square property consisting of Parcels I, IV, V, and VI to Urban Ventures Burien, LLC ("Owner/Developer"), at fair market value of $4,666,016 pursuant to a Disposition and Development Agreement dated June 29, 2005.
Owner/Developer chose to develop the Property in Phases, substantially completed the first Phase on July 21, 2009, and was required to commence construction of the next Phase on or before July 21, 2011. Owner/Developer is no longer able or willing to meet its obligations under the DDA (Disposition and Development Agreement). On April 30, 2012, the City issued a formal written notice to Owner/Developer that an Event of Default pursuant to the DDA had occurred.
It states that the repurchase price of the three parcels is $2,594,100, and that once purchased, the City will seek a new developer.
