Kendall Yards: Draft development agreement in, months later

Readers often ask what’s next for the 78-acre mixed-use development Kendall Yards on the north bank of the Spokane River near downtown Spokane. Black Rock Development has submitted a revised development agreement to the city - a contract spelling out what the developer will do to mitigate traffic impacts and what services the city will provide - and we’ve obtained a copy.

The 20-page document proposes Black Rock would be exempt from any future development impact fees, in exchange for paying for specific traffic improvements; designating about 25 acres of the project as public amenities, including plazas, streets and sidewalks; building a section of the Centennial Trail through the property; and cleaning up the site (it puts a value on the land as public amenities at $27.23 million).

The developer would make some traffic improvements at its expense, and pay no more than $275,300 for its portion of other projects for the first phase, according to the draft.

But if the city meanwhile implemented separate proposed traffic impact fees, Black Rock would need to pay at least $8.32 million more, Kendall Yards project manager Tom Reese told the City Council. The impact fees under consideration citywide would charge developers thousands of dollars per project to pay for traffic-system upgrades.

Chesrown paid $12.8 million for the site at a 2004 Metropolitan Mortgage & Securities bankruptcy auction.

Officials said it was too early to comment on specifics, but Dave Mandyke, head of the city’s public works and utilities division, said the development agreement is the most important piece to move the project forward.

“They’ve had it for 18 months; we’d like to bring it to conclusion,” Mandyke said.

Read the draft here . What’s else is in store for Kendall Yards? Check out tomorrow’s print edition for a longer exploration.