Gig Harbor on the rise

Four mega construction projects in city moving swiftly

Marques Hunter / of the Gateway

The YMCA, Costco, St. Anthony Hospital and Uptown Gig Harbor all have one thing in common: Every piece is coming to serve a specialized niche in the ever-growing Gig Harbor community and will be finished by 2009.

If 2 1/2 years seems too far away, picture at least half of those developments possibly done by November. The YMCA opens next Tuesday and Costco is scheduled to open before Christmas. Both are located along Harbor Hill Drive and are separated only by a small stretch of road.

The Harbor Hill residential development will begin to fill up before the new year, and Uptown Gig Harbor developer John Hogan said they are expecting some of their retailers to open off Point Fosdick Drive prior to the holiday season.

After loads of market research and campaign fund-raising, the YMCA will be the first developmental piece to Gig Harbor North along the transforming Harbor Hill development.

Even though Wal-Mart was denied not too long ago, the mecca of bulk foods will provide residents fewer reasons to do their shopping at various other grocery stores.

Some of the Costco development is going vertical with ongoing grading of the site.

The building color of Costco is exactly similar to other ones. The intent, as envisioned by the Design Review Board, is to have smaller retail shops in the front with the actual cookie-cutter building set farther back.

Ferguson Construction is the developer of Costco and Rush Development built the YMCA.

The Costco model will be about 8,000 square feet bigger than the Tacoma building.

Olympic Property Group, the developer which owns more than 300 acres of land, isn’t planning to build perhaps until late 2008 or 2009, said John Chadwell, lead developer.

So, Costco and the YMCA will sit by themselves for some time.

Construction on Costco started last August after OPG sold the property to Ferguson Construction. YMCA began construction about one year ago.

The YMCA is 99 percent complete. Management said they are putting the finishing touches to every aspect of the facility. Their original goal was to raise $6 million, but that figure has more than tripled with the total project costing $20 million.

While construction along Harbor Hill moves at a steady pace, progress on the St. Anthony Hospital is also going vertical on Canterwood Boulevard. Only the second hospital in 20 years to receive a state certificate of need, the 217,000-square-foot building will provide service to both Gig Harbor and Key Peninsula residents.

Permitting of the site is complete. The dirt work is essentially finished, as Sellen Construction has moved 120,000 cubic yards of dirt.

The spine of the building, which was described by field manager Rex Richards as the backbone, is going vertical along with stairways and the elevator shaft. There are about 100 construction workers conducting site-specific duties. There will be up to 200 workers when the project is moving at full speed.

There is also a large percentage of tree retention surrounding the upcoming hospital and office building. The hospital is scheduled to be complete in early 2009.

With the bulk of the upcoming development occurring in Gig Harbor North, the west side is also rapidly changing with some Uptown Gig Harbor retail stores ready to open shop around the same time as Costco. The upscale commercial development will be unlike any other retail center in Gig Harbor.

So far, Panera bread, Chicos, Coldwater Creek and Ben & Jerry’s are the official tenant list, but Hogan said it’s 75 percent complete with more announcements coming by month’s end.

Built with high design standards, Hogan said they spent an additional 20 percent in construction costs, trying to provide residents with an elegant shopping area that will include a state-of-the-art movie theatre coming in late February and a Borders bookstore scheduled for November.

As a result of large projects being built in Gig Harbor, the city has seen a substantial increase in permitting fees.

So far this year, the city has collected more than $1.3 million, double what the city has seen in an entire year, said Dick Bower, the building official who oversees the permitting process.

“I don’t see a slowdown,” he said.

Visit the YMCA

To access the Gig Harbor YMCA, take the Burnham Drive exit and proceed up Borgen Boulevard.

At the second roundabout, veer right onto Harbor Hill Drive. The YMCA is on the right just past the new Costco development.