“It’s not that there aren’t some good buildings left there, but Kitsap County is historically much more stable,” Johnson said.

Tim Arnold, a commercial real estate specialist at Bradley Scott puts it another way:
“We’re not in a boom, but we’ve never experienced many decreases either.”

For well-known reasons of geographic and commuter isolation, prices are lower in this region. There are areas of the county, however, where business owners jostle for space. Currently Poulsbo and Silverdale are popular, said Gary Gartin, with commercial brokers Bradley Scott.

Johnson said the average square-foot price for Silverdale office property is between $12 and $22. For Bremerton it is $6-$10. And Poulsbo prices average $16 to $24.

The lower end of the range of prices tends to be those where utilities and some maintenance costs are not included and may be charged on a pro-rated basis.

The TRENDS report from the Kitsap Housing Authority shows that the retail vacancy rate in Downtown Bremerton continues to rise. As of Sept. 2001, the last date for which figures are available, that rate is 14.02 percent of 237,943 square feet. East and West Bremerton suburbs are much lower at about 5 percent.

Poulsbo’s rate is 1.27 percent (3,853 square feet); Port Orchard, 6.82 (80, 164); Silverdale 8.75 (206,550). The county vacancy as a whole is at 7.24 percent (392,570).

There has been an increase in other office space in Kitsap County to 2.75 million square feet. The commercial report also indicates that Silverdale’s figures are misleading due to one large company that left the area in 2001.

The numbers for office space vacancy include: Downtown Bremerton, 21.44 percent (100,846 square feet); Port Orchard, 16.9 (31,586); Poulsbo, 5.81 28,870); and Silverdale 8.07 (43,749).

Bainbridge Island until recently was a boom area, but it is trending downwards, Arnold said.

“High prices are making it harder to buy and sell,” he said.

Twelve Trees industrial Park can be considered a model for how sell space. Its 300,000 square feet of commercial property is filled, less than two years after opening.

It’s an example of catering to what people need, Johnson said. There continues to be an increase in service-orientated business, which often requires a certain look.

“So many companies that are public-orientated need to be in a nice facility because that represents who they are,” he said. “And they are willing to pay for it.”

Vic Ulsh, with Bradley Scott says that Bremerton has an anti-commercial reputation that it still struggles to disperse.

“There is some new construction, a brand new Windemere building going up and other plans in the works,” Ulsh said. “There is a lot of good retail space available; very visible in high traffic areas.”

Ulsh said the most serious inadequacy in the county is the lack of large warehouse and factory space, though the Olympic View Business and Industrial Park near Bremerton Airport “has gone a small way toward addressing that.”

“But not enough,” he said. “We’re in a competitive market and that’s just glaring.”

(Editor’s Note: Temple A. Stark is a free-lance writer living in Port Orchard. Reach him at writer@harbornet.com.).