Sequim: Proposed retail center the result of careful planning and review, developers say

Published 12:01 am Tuesday, January 27, 2004

SEQUIM — It could bring dramatic change to the landscape of the city’s low-key downtown core.

It could also bring hundreds of jobs to the area, and millions of dollars of tax revenues to pad public coffers.

All told, the addition of a regional shopping center anchored by a Fred Meyer department store would be a win-win for the city of Sequim, developers of the proposed project say.

Bell Farm Center, targeted for a parcel east of the U.S. Highway 101-South Sequim Avenue interchange, is a work in progress being presented carefully to both the city and the public by landowner Mark Burrowes and a Bellevue developer, Fred McConkey.

After the difficulties faced by developers of two other “big-box” retail projects at the west side of town — a Wal-Mart “superstore” and a regional shopping center anchored by The Home Depot — Burrowes said he and McConkey did their homework and submitted an extensive plan to city Planning Director Dennis Lefevre.

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The rest of the story appears in Tuesday’s Peninsula Daily News Clallam County edition.