After years of sitting idle, a key city-owned block just outside downtown Kent is finally getting a second act. Mortenson Development has been tapped to buy and build a manufacturing campus on the Naden Avenue assemblage, a 9.3-acre site just north of Willis Street and east of State Route 167. City leaders say upgraded utilities and direct highway access make the property a rare catch for advanced manufacturers, and they are banking on the project to bring jobs and fresh foot traffic back into the city’s core.
The selection of Mortenson was first reported by the Puget Sound Business Journal, which dubbed the project the Naden Avenue Manufacturing Campus. Connect CRE notes that the infill parcel spans roughly 9.3 acres, benefits from a recently upgraded Puget Sound Energy substation and that Mortenson plans to team with Kidder Mathews to market build-to-suit space. That strategy lines up neatly with the city’s stated goal of luring power-hungry, employee-heavy manufacturers instead of data centers or big-box distribution hubs.
Deal Details And Council’s Unanimous Nod
The Kent City Council signed off 7-0 on Feb. 3 on an $18.3 million sale to Mortenson, according to the Kent Reporter. Council members called out the site’s potential as a job engine for downtown, and Mortenson’s pitch estimated about $62 million in economic impact in the first year and as much as $1.1 billion over 20 years.
Under the purchase agreement, Mortenson must construct a new north-south street through the property and follow design standards meant to create a visible gateway into the downtown district. City officials are treating that piece of the deal as more than window dressing, framing it as a chance to physically and psychologically connect the campus to the rest of Kent.
Long Road To Redevelopment
Kent’s pursuit of a project on Naden Avenue has been a long haul. The city started assembling parcels along the corridor in the 2000s, then in 2019 changed the zoning to allow light manufacturing. A formal request for proposals went out in May 2025, kicking off the search for a development partner willing to tackle a complicated but potentially lucrative site.
As outlined in the City of Kent's RFP, the winning team would enter exclusive negotiations under either a ground-lease or purchase option, with a lengthy window built in to secure entitlements. City staff spent years getting the land ready for that moment, including demolition work and access upgrades to make the property viable for industrial users rather than just another tricky infill parcel.
Next Steps
With the council’s approval in hand, Mortenson now moves into exclusive negotiations under the city’s RFP framework. The document allows up to thirty months to obtain entitlements and close on the deal, giving the developer a generous but finite runway to line up tenants and financing.
Connect CRE reports that Mortenson’s partnership with Kidder Mathews will focus on marketing build-to-suit options to manufacturers. At the same time, the city has drawn a firm line on what it does not want on the site: no data centers and no freight distribution facilities. That restriction, city officials say, is meant to prioritize high-employment manufacturing uses over low-headcount, high-equipment operations, according to the Kent Reporter.
