POULSBO — Three years ago, ground was broken at Olhava for a college campus that was more than 10 years in the making.

This month, city staffers have an inkling an equally historic event could finally be in store for the site’s retail area in the near future.

Three years after clearing and grading took place to prepare the 216-acre Olhava site for commercial uses and nearly two years since the first retailer’s identity was announced, building may soon take place at College Marketplace at the Olhava site.

Construction this year would cap more than a decade that the City of Poulsbo has officially been involved in the site. The 216-acre property was annexed into Poulsbo nearly 11 years ago and the topic of having a college at the location came up about 15 years ago. Mayor Donna Jean Bruce has been involved both as a mayor and council member and noted it’s been a long process. She said at this point, she’s cautiously optimistic about seeing buildings go up this construction season.

“We’ve waited so long. I can’t get excited until I see something,” she said of the permitting taking place at Olhava. “You don’t want to get your hopes up.”

Even in the more recent future, Olhava has been something of a waiting game for Poulsbo. When Wal-Mart first announced that it wished to be the first retailer to anchor the site’s 800,000-square feet of retail space, officials originally envisioned a mid- to late-2004 opening. But an appeal of the application and its environmental review by Citizens to Stop Wal-Mart delayed that date.

“It’s just been waiting and waiting,” Bruce commented. “So we haven’t planned any of our financial future on anything happening there.”

Large tract development applications have now been received for Wal-Mart and Home Depot, which will be the anchor tenants of the College Marketplace commercial area. Wal-Mart is currently working under its site construction permit, which allows grading and installation of utility hooks ups. A building permit that would allow the actual store to be constructed following the infrastructure work has been approved for some time.

“Wal-Mart just needs to pick up their permit and pay their fees and they’ll be set to build,” Associate Planner Linda Mueller explained.

The Home Depot is still under site plan review. A pre-application has also been submitted by the Kitsap County Housing Authority for multi-family housing in a plat on Olhava’s eastern border.

The large tracts are being reviewed independently of short platting that is now underway for the other 16 areas of the commercial area. Mueller explained that owner First Western Investments wished to split the parcels into sellable lots, which requires some sort of subdivision take place.

“But a person could buy several and recombine them and, actually, they expect that is what will happen,” she added.

In the area currently being short-platted, pre-applications have been received for:

• Lots 3-A & B — Barber Development proposes to combine the two lots for a retail strip mall, one-story, 15,593-square-feet on 1.93 acres. Possible tenants: Quiznos, Starbuck’s, Taco Del Mar.

• Lot 3-O — Barber Development proposes two commercial retail buildings, one-story, 12,564-square feet and 5,673-square-feet on 2.03 acres.

• Lot 3-Q — Jiffy Lube, two-story, 4,189-square-feet, two service bays on a 21,709-square-foot lot.

• Lot 4-C — 1st Federal Savings, one-story, 5,000-square-feet, two bay drive through.

• Lot 7-B — Harborstone Bank, one-story, 5,120-square-feet, three bay drive through on 1.36-acre lot.

• Lot 7-C — DaVita Dialysis Center, one-story, 6,200-square-feet medical facility on 1.19-acre lot

Pre-applications for proposals in the areas subject to short platting will have to wait until that process has been completed before site plan review can begin.

“We decided to do preliminary meetings but wait until they have a legal lot and approved site plan before going any further,” Mueller explained.

It is difficult to estimate how long the short platting process will take, Project Engineer Andrzej Kasiniak said. Staff have already drafted a first set of comments to First Western and are awaiting a reply. Once the company responds, then it will be determined what has to be done from there. Compounding is the fact that Poulsbo usually deals with short plats of two to four lots with minimal infrastructure.

“Usually, short plats are much more simple than this one,” Kasiniak said.

Though the identities of many of the College Marketplace tenants remain a matter of speculation at this point, Mueller said they have been broken down into two distinct uses. The strip of lots directly adjacent to the Olympic College, Poulsbo campus will be smaller and focus on uses like office buildings whereas the lots at the southern end are for more retail-oriented businesses.

“That will serve as a transition between the retail and the college,” she explained.

Planning staff expect that the residential area of Olhava will be developed by one owner, though no applications have been made.