As soon as the Kent School District is ready to sell the property Covington Elementary sits on officials from the city of Covington hope to be ready with a plan for the site.

Covington City Manager Derek Matheson said staff is working on four major initiatives related to the property, which will be home someday to the city’s town center concept.

First is the request for qualifications which went out July 15. The city is looking for a development partner so a plan can be developed for the site. Second is an amendment to municipal code which will allow development agreements in the town center. Third, thanks to a $50,000 grant from the state, the city can hire a consultant to help with a study of the town center area. Finally, the city is considering how to pay for a City Hall building on the town center site as part of the public-private partnership Covington officials are seeking for development of the property.

In the meantime, Soos Creek Water and Sewer District is working on infrastructure improvements to the tune of $40 million along Covington Way which would enable development.

Getting creative in partnering with developers is one of many ideas staff floated at the City Council summit in January, Matheson said. This idea first came up when staff compared what the city has done thus far with what it is doing with the Hawk property off Southeast 256th. Covington staff have worked with the current owners and YarrowBay, which is in the process of purchasing the property, on creating a vision which the developer will build out.

Matheson said that model could also work for town center. The City Council liked the idea in January when it was first suggested, but wanted to get some other elements in place before considering it further.

“This idea goes back to late last year when it occurred to us that the Hawk property process was so smooth because we had the city working with one property owner-developer to craft the vision,” Matheson said. “We thought what if we selected a development partner for the town center and worked together to refine the vision and advance a project. The end goal is to select a developer then negotiate an agreement for an exclusive partnership to pursue the town center vision.”

Responses to the RFQ will be reviewed in September then firms will be interviewed and vetted in October with the goal to negotiate an agreement with whichever firm the city chose in November. In the meantime, the municipal code amendment will need to be approved so that the partnership could be effective.

In addition, Matheson said, the city will hire a consultant to conduct a study on the revenue businesses in the town center could potentially generate. Money for the study came, Matheson said, thanks to the efforts of Rep. Pat Sullivand Sen. Joe Fain of the 47th Legislative District, of which Covington is a part.

“The idea here is that the town center will be developed by both the private sector and the public sector,” Matheson said. “Private sector would do things like retail, office and housing and they would build some infrastructure necessary to support those private uses. The city would have to build, for example, a city hall, a public plaza and streets and utilities.We don’t have millions of dollars in our checking account so we’re going to have to rely on federal and state grants to build the public infrastructure.”

The study will evaluate how much it will cost to build the supporting infrastructure for the town center as well as potential revenue which will allow the city to be competitive when applying for grants.

“The result of this study we hope to have better data than any other grant applicant so we can score better than any other applicant,” Matheson said.

And it is possible the city could in the future use a process similar to the one it employed last year with its budget priorities advisory committee, which recommended putting a sales tax increase from 8.6 percent to 8.8 percent to voters in November. If that is successful this fall, Matheson said, it is possible the city could put together another committee to evaluate how to find additional funding for parks, recreation and a new City Hall. That, however, is two years down the road.

While all this is going on the city’s Economic Development Council is working through the branding campaign with plans to make some preliminary decisions in late August then present them to the City Council, including possibilities for the official name for town center.

Additionally, Matheson noted, city staff members are learning more about how to further the higher education presence in downtown Covington while searching for funding for South Covington Park on the east side of Wax Road across from the town center site.

By the time KSD is ready to sell the Covington Elementary site, city officials could have all the pieces in place to develop the property to fulfill the vision for town center.

“I really see town center as the second wave of development in Covington,” Matheson said. “The first wave was the big boxes and strip malls and the second wave is town center. If you say, ‘Meet me in Covington,’ they’ll know exactly what that means.”