Officials with the Fort Worden Public Development Authority are looking at suspending any additional work on the PDA’s “glamping” project.

The tent-camping development, called “glamping” as shorthand for “glamorous camping,” has been in the works for years but still sits unfinished and unused. 

While installation of water, electrical, and other improvements started in 2019, the PDA had expected to finish the project in phases, with 15 bathroom-equipped tents ready for campers in June 2020.

Cost estimates to complete the first 15 tents, however, have been estimated to be around $1.5 million. PDA officials said earlier that $1.3 million has already been spent on the glamping project.

PDA executive director David Timmons said the holder of the PDA’s debt wants the agency to stop work on the project until another entity can take it over.

“I’ve been working with Kitsap Bank and Alan Crain, who is their CFO, on options for us now that we’ve kind of cleared all of the issues,” Timmons said.

“And one of the issues that this depends upon is that we accept kind of this responsibility to sort of suspend the glamping initiative until we come up with a better plan that someone else can actually implement,” he added.

The sites are “shovel-ready,” Timmons noted, for someone to come along and finish out.

Timmons said his recommendation was to suspend any more investment in glamping.

“And then look at the infrastructure investment as a sunk cost that we can negotiate recovery on when and if someone moves forward with a project at that location,” he added.

The PDA is also considering consolidating the debt from its four existing bonds into one single bond.

One notable change is that the PDA would still owe what Timmons called a “residual amount” on the existing bond for the Makers Square project.

That shortfall is due to the loss of a critical grant, which Timmons noted “seems to be coming back to haunt the project.”

With the loss of the grant, the PDA is coming up short to pay off that bond.

If the bonds are consolidated into one, a new schedule to retire the debt over time would be put in place. Income from the Makers Square, as well as a fee on concessions, would be used to help service the debt.

If the recommendation is approved by the PDA board to bundle the bonds, the glamping project would be “moth-balled.”

Timmons told the committee that the new bond with Kitsap Bank may be ready for board review in July.