2009 Kitsap County Budget Book - Kitsap County Government

General Information and Economic Indicators
A number of residential, commercial and retail developments are planned or under way in the County. Among
these are the following:
South Kitsap and Port Orchard:
• McCormick Land Company has secured land use approval by the County for an inn and conference center
adjacent to the McCormick Woods Golf Course. The inn will have 200 rooms and the conference center will
include 18,000 square feet of meeting space, as well as swimming pool, restaurant and exercise room.
Construction of the project will take 14 to 15 months.
• Harrison Medical Center opened a new two-story, 36,000 square foot medical building to expand its Port
Orchard campus to include a 24-hour urgent care center, more imaging services, physician offices and a
host of outpatient services.
• The South Kitsap Industrial Area (SKIA) is made up of approximately 3,400 acres including and surrounding
Bremerton National Airport and the industrial and business parks located there. The SKIA area is now being
considered for annexation by the City of Bremerton.
Central Kitsap, Silverdale, and Bremerton:
• Downtown Bremerton has invested over $500 million in a revitalization project that has brought new life to
Bremerton. Money magazine rated it as “one of the top 5 up and coming ‘hot’ cities in the country”.
• Harrison Medical Center plans to build a 92-bed expansion at the Silverdale campus by 2012. The
expansion will include a new intensive care unit, an additional operating room, a brand new emergency
department, a 24-hour full-service pharmacy, laboratory services, and a blood bank.
• The Port of Bremerton has completed the expansion of the Bremerton marina in the spring of 2008. The
marina contains 229 permanent slips and is expected to generate $10 million a year from increased boating
and tourism in the Kitsap area.
• A new 130-unit Marriott-Fairfield Hotel began construction in downtown Bremerton. The hotel will cater to
business travelers and will be finished in 2009.
• Two condominium projects were completed in the summer of 2008 in downtown Bremerton. The 400 has 70
units and the Harborside has 78 units. The first residents have moved into their units.
• Construction of a $30.7 million downtown Bremerton tunnel began last year. The 940 foot long tunnel is
designed to funnel most of the unloading vehicular ferry traffic out of the downtown core, which will clear up
congestion and make the area more pedestrian friendly. The tunnel is expected to open by spring 2009.
North Kitsap:
• Harrison Medical Center plans to build a new 50,000 square foot medical building on seven acres in the
vicinity of Highway 305, Lincoln Road and 10 th Avenue. More than 15,000 square feet of the new building
will be dedicated to outpatient cancer services and feature a linear accelerator.
• Olympic Property Group is planning a 350-acre residential property called Arborwood near the Kinston ferry.
It will include over 50% open space, trail connections to the North Kitsap Heritage Park and up to 750
homes.
• Olympic Property Group has also developed Chatham in Hansville, a 19-lot residential, gated community of
estate sized lots, ranging from 3 to 10 acres.
• Tribal casinos and resorts have positively impacted job growth but are not recorded by state’s economic
data.
Eleven port districts serve the County; the largest of these is the Port of Bremerton, which operates the 560-acre
Olympic View Industrial Park. The park, which is close to Bremerton and Port Orchard, is adjacent to the
port-operated Bremerton National Airport; the park and the airport are the location of 22 firms employing a total
of approximately 500 people.
TRANSPORTATION
The Kitsap peninsula is accessible by land, sea and air and rail.
Highways around the southern end of Puget Sound. Interstate 5 and US Highway 101 are connected by a
six-mile leg near Olympia, and State Highway 3 branches off Highway 101 and heads north to Bremerton. The
Tacoma Narrows Bridge across the Sound at Tacoma carries State Highway 16 to the County. The second
Narrows Bridge opened in the summer of 2007 and is supported by tolls.
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