A developer has plans for property in downtown Puyallup that the city bought more than 20 years ago.
Palindrome Development is proposing a mixed-use project on 1.5 acres at 115 Second St. SE that the city purchased in 2002, according to agenda materials for the Dec. 10 City Council meeting.
Palindrome president Robert Gibson told The News Tribune on Friday via email in response to questions that the “proposed Palindrome project is expected to break ground in early 2026 with completion expected in mid 2027.”
He described the plans as “a mixed use redevelopment including mixed income rental housing, for-sale townhomes and a food hall and craft beer brewery.”
Gibson noted that the food hall would be similar to another Palindrome-operated location in Portland called The Zed PDX.
Online, that site’s food hall is described as offering “diverse cuisine brought to you by independently owned restaurants.”
Gibson added that his company was attracted to Puyallup “due to its proximity to Tacoma and Seattle and convenient commuter access via the Sounder.”
Beyond that and what’s available in the agenda materials for the Dec. 10 meeting, at which Palindrome will present to the City Council, few details are available.
Asked what the city can share about Palindrome’s proposal, whether any renderings are available, what the timeline looks like, whether the council will give direction Dec. 10 or if the matter will come back for a future vote and public hearing, among other questions, city spokesperson Eric Johnson said the city is not releasing information before the meeting.
“Palindrome will give a presentation tomorrow night about their proposed project,” Johnson told The News Tribune via email Monday. “So, most of your questions will be answered during the presentation. They’ll go into details about the project and share renderings. At this time, we are not releasing any details until after the meeting.”
He said city officials would be available to meet with a reporter to discuss the project Wednesday.
Residents can watch the meeting on the city’s website or attend in-person at City Hall at 6:30 p.m. at 333 S. Meridian.
The city has plans for a mixed-use development on city-owned property at 115 Second St. SE in downtown Puyallup. Alexis Krell
What used to be on the property?
Cornforth Campbell Motors owned the property until the city bought it.
“Over the last two decades the City has worked on the environmental clean-up of the properties and explored various uses centered around a mixed-use project,” the agenda materials said.
The city’s website about the Cornforth-Campbell property says that: “The City has entered into a development agreement with a developer to re-imagine this property, which will include a mix of housing and commercial uses.”
The city has plans for a mixed-use development on city-owned property at 115 Second St. SE in downtown Puyallup. Alexis Krell
H.O. Wilen built the oldest building on the property in 1941 for H.O. Motors, and there was a car dealership and service garage there, the city’s website says.
“It was there that a young Evan Cornforth worked as a parts manager for Wilen, eventually moving up the ranks to partner in 1961,” the website says.
Gifford Motors was another dealership on the property, to the north, and the Puyallup Roller Rink was on the second floor, until that building burned in 1964.
“The empty lot was acquired by Wilen-Cornforth Motors, which was to be used as a parking lot to display their used vehicles,” the website says. “Then, in 1994, Wilen-Cornforth Motors changed to Cornforth-Campbell Motors,” which closed in the 2000s.
Now the city uses the site for public parking.
“In 2022, the City Council and staff worked with a consultant to re-look at the property and its potential to reinvigorate the surrounding area of downtown,” the website says, and sought proposals from developers.
Puyallup put out a request for proposals last year for projects that involved multi-family housing and commercial space that would work with a festival street the city has planned nearby for special events on Meeker Street.
“City staff and consultants reviewed the proposals and interviewed various developers,” the agenda materials for the Dec. 10 meeting said. “Based on the proposals and the City’s stated intent for the development of the property, City staff began initial due diligence work with Palindrome Development. Palindrome stood out based on their proposal’s clear nexus to the City’s stated intent for the property and the documented experience Palindrome has in developing vibrant downtown mixed-used projects.”
Past projects
Palindrome is based in Portland, with the bulk of its work in Oregon and other areas.
In August, the city of Vancouver, Washington, announced Palindrome was one of three developers chosen among applicants to proceed with negotiating exclusive negotiation agreements on developing a bundle of city-owned sites.
Not everything has gone smoothly for the firm. A legal battle over density issues and the project approval process ensued in the village of Los Ranchos, New Mexico, between Palindrome and those opposed to its mixed development project. A settlement was reached in October, according to the Albuquerque Journal.
In August, city officials in Wilsonville, Oregon, broke ground on a public-private partnership development for 121 affordable units next to that city’s transit station. According to the city, “To catalyze development, the City sold the 1.3-acre property to Palindrome for $1 and is subsidizing $1.4 million in System Development Charges (SDCs).”
During a Wilsonville development review board hearing earlier this year, carpenters and carpenters union representatives testified against some previous subcontractors in Palindrome projects, accusing the subcontractors of unethical business practices such as failing to properly pay workers.
In response, Palindrome’s Gibson offered a lengthy defense of the firm’s own practices and also acknowledged the concerns raised by carpenters union members, according to the board’s meeting notes. He reiterated that the bad contractors referred to in the complaints had been “mistakes” and that the company would never use them again, nor would they be used in the Wilsonville project.
Gibson offered similar comments regarding a Portland project in April over a subcontractor’s practices, stating “We learned our lesson.”
“It wasn’t — it’s not part of our practice. It was a mistake, and we’ll do better to protect the workers of our subcontractors going forward in terms of whether they’ve been paid,” he told the Prosper Portland board, as reported by Daily Journal of Commerce Oregon.