Winslow Towers takes name, shape from history

Published 10:00 am Wednesday, September 13, 2006

A replica of the historic water tower will be part of the buildings.

Islanders might see something familiar amid the new offices and townhouses set to take shape at the intersection of Madison Avenue and Wyatt Way.

The Winslow Towers and Wyatt Place developments planned for the intersection’s northeast corner will replace the historic Hoskinson House, which was torn down last year, and incorporate a replica of the home’s landmark water tower.

“Originally, I wanted to incorporate the real water tower as a sort of recognition of the historic value of the site,” said Wayne LaMont, the Poulsbo architect designing the three-story mixed-use Winslow Towers building and adjacent Wyatt Place residences.

But the 94-year-old structure likely wouldn’t take the transition well, LaMont said.

“The water tower’s in pretty bad shape and to make it safe would probably entail rebuilding the whole thing,” he said.

The site is under development by Winslow Holdings LLC, a partnership between real estate investor Jon Thompson and Larry Sears Sr., an insurance agent and president of the Bainbridge Island Chamber of Commerce.

The project is undergoing review by the city Planning and Community Development Department, and will likely go before the Planning Commission in late September or early October.

Thompson hopes to begin construction by the end of the year and have the project finished by the end of 2007.

The water tower has been promised to the city’s Historic Preservation Commission, which is trying to find a permanent home for the structure.

The 1.5-acre development would feature the tower replica as the centerpiece of the Winslow Towers building, facing the Madison-Wyatt intersection, according to plans filed last week with the city.

The building would hold about 5,250 square feet of retail space, 6,600 square feet of office space and a 1,880-square-foot garage. Three residential units would crown the building’s third floor. The entire structure’s footprint would take up about 8,200 square feet.

The 10 townhouses planned for the site’s L-shaped northeast portion would cover about 6,500 square feet of ground. Each of the residential units would include a single-vehicle garage.

A parking lot between the two projects would run about 100 feet along Wyatt. The property’s paved areas – including parking stalls and walkways – are estimated at a combined 30,400 square feet.

Thompson is targeting financial institutions to fill the Winslow Tower’s commercial and office space. Sears’ company, Sears and Associates, is slated as one of the building’s first tenants.

Both the residences and the commercial building will feature a mixture of exterior design elements, including shingled roofs, brown cement wall panels, brick veneer and wood shingle siding.

The project has been stymied for several years, Thompson said, largely because of a city effort to incorporate a traffic roundabout into the Madison-Wyatt intersection.

With the city now settled on a roundabout design, Thompson is hopeful his development will finally march forward.

“The roundabout affected this immensely,” he said. “It’s been on hold for years, moved back twice and redesigned three times to fit the roundabout.”

The roundabout will take a small chunk of the development’s land, but Thompson said he isn’t concerned. The city has agreed to cover some street improvements, including a new sidewalk, curb gutters and a water main rebuild.

“We just want to make it work because it took a long time to get here,” Thompson said.