Harbor Custom Development : Development projects throughout Blaine

By Grace McCarthy Posted Wednesday, January 25, 2023

About 10 homes have been completed and another 16 are under construction in Horizon at Semiahmoo

Photo by Grace McCarthy

Blaine saw a booming year for housing development in 2022.

There was more than enough to keep city staff busy, from the announcement of the proposed Semiahmoo Highlands development that will bring up to 480 residential units to construction of The Ridge at Harbor Hills.
The city received $376,000 in revenue from building permit fees in 2022, which is $100,000 more than 2021 and $200,000 more than 2020. Construction was valued at nearly $45.6 million last year.

The city permitted nearly three times as many residential building permits as its annual average over the past decade, at over 150 permits in 2022, said Stacie Pratschner, director of the city's Community Development Services Department (CDS). Development of The Ridge at Harbor Hills significantly brought up the number of permits, which the city uses to gauge the number of new housing units being built.

"It was quite a change from the averages we've seen for about a 10-year period," Pratschner said. The closest the city's seen to these numbers was right before the 2008 recession when there were about 70 residential unit permits issued, she said.

Last January, the city began using a hearing examiner, instead of planning commission, to review applications such as conditional use permits and preliminary plat applications before being considered by city council. The city also digitized its permit intake, which Pratschner said accommodated growth.
CDS is projecting conservative revenue from building permit fees in 2023, which Pratschner said is a theme throughout the city budget. Department staff are estimating numbers will be close to 2019.

From east to west, here are some of the major development projects, proposed and in construction.

Grandis Pond
Grandis Pond is a housing project east of Harvey Road that is expected to have 387 homes in its first subdivision and 1,000 homes within the next two decades. The project will have seven subdivisions made up of single-family, cottage homes, duplexes and fourplexes. Grandis Pond also has an area for a fire station and 48,000 square feet of commercial space.

Developer Ken Hertz, president of Bellingham-based Blossom Management, said he hopes construction could start in 2024 after infrastructure is installed. Hertz has been working with the city of Blaine and east Blaine developers Skip and Katie Jansen to obtain funding to install the infrastructure through tax-increment financing (TIF) and an Economic Development Investment Program grant and low-interest loan combination through Whatcom County. TIF would allow the city to borrow money from expected increases in property tax revenues from a designated area in east Blaine to pay for water, sewer and street construction.

The project has been stalled for several years due to the lack of infrastructure, which is also part of the reason Harbor Custom Development (HCD) has delayed closing the sale to purchase Grandis Pond, Hertz said. HCD, a Gig-Harbor based real estate company, entered a contract to purchase Grandis Pond for $14 million in December 2021. The contract expires at the end of 2023, Hertz said, adding that sale meetings remain positive.

"East Blaine development is going to be a big asset to the entire county because there's very few pieces of property available with utilities, outside of the flood plain and outside of the agriculture area," Hertz said. "This is a prime location in Whatcom County and northwest Washington."

Horizon at Semiahmoo
About 10 homes are complete and another 16 are under construction in Horizon at Semiahmoo, said Jennifer Lang, director of marketing for HCD, the Gig Harbor-based real estate company developing the 149-acre subdivision. Two homes are already occupied and another two will have residents by April.

Horizon development spurred after years of staying idle when HCD purchased the housing development between Semiahmoo Parkway and Birch Bay Drive in July 2021. Multi-family housing allowed HCD to double the development's previously expected residences to over 540 units, between 140 single-family homes and about 400 multi-family units in triplexes and fourplexes.

Horizon has opened its park with a bocce ball court and another park with horseshoe pits. The north gate on Semiahmoo Parkway is expected to be installed this spring and the gate off Birch Point Road will be installed later.
HCD doesn't have an estimate on when construction could be complete, Lang said.

Inverness
HCD is also developing Inverness, a 37-acre subdivision next to the Semiahmoo Golf Course that is slated to have 63 single-family lots. After holding a community meeting last June, HCD submitted its planned unit development and preliminary plat application to the city of Blaine. A public hearing is expected to occur in the next couple of months but hasn't been scheduled, Pratschner said.

The gated subdivision is planned to have public utilities and a private stormwater pond. It will need traffic, wildlife and stormwater studies, among other requirements, according to the city.

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