The Trails at Silverdale, a 17.6 acre retail development proposed for southwest of Greaves Way and Clear Creek Road, is gearing up for site work to begin next month.

According to Jeff Rowe, assistant director of Kitsap County Department of Community Development, applications have been received by the county for the demolition of structures that are on the property and for a grading permit that will prepare the land for building the shopping center.

“The applications are in the review process,” Rowe said. “What they’re asking is for permission to knock down the existing buildings on the property and begin rough grading on about 18 acres of the site.”

The project is being developed by a California-based company, CenterCal Properties. The entire site is about 30 acres, but the shopping center will be built on about 18 acres, according to documents filed by CenterCal last year when it submitted applications with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the State Department of Ecology.

Fred Bruning, CEO for CenterCal, said the company isn’t ready to announce tenants, but that could happen as soon as next month.

“At this time we have no announcements,” he said. “That will come after we attend the International Council of Shopping Centers conference in LasVegas in May.”

Bruning said the center would be 210,000 square feet of space and will include a movie theater, restaurants, grocery store, fitness stores and retail outlets.

Bruning, who was development director for Sears when the Kitsap Mall was developed, said CenterCal is excited about building in Kitsap County. He said the plan was not take tenants from existing places, but to add opportunities that are not now available in Kitsap County.

“We’re talking about this place being a gathering place where people can come and just enjoy themselves,” he said. “It will include things like a (movie) theater, restaurants, retail and a grocery store in a setting that matches the environment that it is in.”

A park-like atmosphere, with a water fountain, outdoor fire pits and places to just sit and enjoy nature are planned, Brunning said.

In fact, the center was named for the Clear Creek Trail which is nearby.

“We threw out a lot of names, but The Trails at Silverdale just kind of stuck,” he said. “It seemed to resonate with us and I just liked it.”

Bruning said that by early June he hopes to be able to announce tenants. He said construction will begin this summer and he anticipates an opening in the fall of 2015.

Richard Walker, of Robinson Construction, a Bellevue-based company, confirmed those dates. Robinson Construction is under contract with CenterCal to build The Trails at Silverdale. Walker said he has worked with CenterCal on retail projects in the Portland area.

Last year CenterCal made application to the Corp of Engineers and the Department of Ecology that laid out the company’s plans for the shopping center and how it will handle the wetlands that are on the property. The plans include some wetland mitigation off site at a nearby Schold Farm property.

In the application filed with the state, the developer plans to fill in 1.74 acres of wetlands and drainages to build the commercial properties. A 15- to 30-foot retaining wall will surround the property to maximize the amount of area that can be built out. An underground storm water detention vault and a detention pond are being proposed to handle the storm water runoff that the project would create.

That vault is part of what will be built this summer. The retaining walls are proposed for construction in July.

Rowe said he didn’t anticipate any problems with CenterCal getting the permits from the county and that they would be granted within a reasonable time frame.

Bruning said the company has taken great caution to work with local government, elected officials and community officials to make sure that the center is what the area wants and needs.

“We’ve taken just about a year to work with all the parties involved,” he said. “We didn’t want to get ahead of ourselves because we want this to be a gathering place for the locals and something that they support.”

CenterCal is the developer of the Wenatchee Valley Mall and Valley North Center in Wenatchee and several Portland-area shopping centers including the Cascade Station. They have projects underway in Salt Lake City, Boise and West Ventura County, Calif.