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COVER STORY
Windermere moves to new
downtown Bremerton digs
First new building constructed downtown in recent memory
By Lary Coppola |
Windermere Real Estate/Westsound, Inc. has moved into its new 9,000 sq. ft., two-story office complex in downtown Bremerton. The building, located at the corner of 6th and Park, is brand new, but was designed to compliment the existing surrounding architecture of the city. It’s the first new, private sector, non-government building constructed in downtown Bremerton in more than 20 years, and only one of four built there in the past half century.
The others include the now abandoned J.C. Penney’s building at Burwell and Pacific, the US Bank building at 6th and Pacific which was recently purchased by the city to be remodeled into a new law enforcement complex, and the KPS headquarters at 4th and Warren.
All of those were built in the 1970s. When Penney’s, the first of those three was constructed, it had been at least 30 years since there has been any other significant construction downtown outside the shipyard gates.
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The new, state-of-the-art Windermere Building is the first significant private sector investment to take place in downtown Bremerton in over 20 years. It is just the beginning of a revitalization of the downtown core which will include a privately-financed new hotel and conference center, a governmental center and retail space and condominiums on the waterfront. All of those projects are scheduled to break ground later this year.
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There has been some periodoic remodeling and additions to existing buildings over the years, most notably when the Bremer Trust sold off many of its holdings to private owners, and when PSNS leased space outside its boundries. But there has been nothing brand new, out of the ground in the downtown core in all that time.
According to Windermere manager and partner Jessica Kennedy, the building, which is on a site formerly occupied by an abandoned transmission repair shop and the Salvation Army, has been in the planning stages for the past three years. Construction began last August.
“It has been our intent to build a new office in downtown Bremerton ever since we opened in downtown in 1994,” she said. “Our business here has grown to the point where we can support the cost of a new building and I think that speaks volumes about where the future of Bremerton is heading.”
The firm has been located in a building it remodeled at 11th and Park since opening in Bremerton over nine years ago.
The new building is absolute state-of-the-art as real estate offices go, with room for 33 agents as it is configured presently. Each agent will have a spacious desk with a return to accommodate a computer workstation. The building is completely wired for high-speed broadband access at every desk, utilizing its own T1 line.
Although the exterior is red brick and plaster, the interior boasts warm earth tones accented by cherry wood trim. The structure is designed so the natural light passes through when and wherever possible.
There are three conference rooms and facilities for the public on the ground floor. Windermere’s accounting department will also occupy part of that floor in the near future.
Windermere will use approximately 7,000 sq. ft. with the balance being leasable first floor, Class-A office space. The building could be configured to accommodate more agents if necessary by converting some of that space.
“This is the beginning of the Bremerton renaissance,” said an excited Kennedy. “It is only one of many things that will be happening in the next three years that will change the face of our downtown. We’re proud to be on the leading edge of that revitalization.”
“I’m thrilled to see such a prestigious market leader like Windermere Real Estate stepping up this early in our revitalization process to commit to Bremerton,” stated an obviously pleased Mayor Cary Bozeman. “By investing the kind of money it takes to build such a beautiful building to do business here, Windermere Real Estate has sent a very real and unmistakable message to the rest of the business community that it believes in the future of this city.”
FPH Construction of Silverdale was the general contractor on the project and Kennedy says that all the subcontractors and construction people who worked on the building were local.
Windermere can be reached at 360-479-7004 or www.windermere.com.
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