Almost every week this is the "What's on the city council's plate this week" review. I don't cover everything, so if you want the full rundown, read the packet and agenda yourself.

This week the city council will hear about a proposed deal between the city and the Colpitts Development company to build 120 "market rate" apartments, two stories of parking and some retail space in downtown Olympia.

I wish I could find some info on the Colpitts company itself, but other than saying they're located in Seattle, there isn't anything to say.

Here is a map of the site, it is the current parking lot behind the Olympia Federal Bank building.

Here is the rundown from the staff report:

Subject to detailed environmental and site design feasibility analysis, Colpitts proposes to construct a development consisting of approximately 120-market rate apartments (a range of studio, 1 bedroom and possibly 2 bedroom units) on the City owned Columbia Street surface parking lot between 4th and 5th Avenues. The project would also include two floors of parking and some ground floor retail.

...

Colpitts pays the City $270,000 for land: The property is conveyed with a deed restriction requiring construction of a mixed-use project. (Page 1, Sections 2.a & 3a-c). The sale is to occur within 120-days of approval of a clean-up plan by Department of Ecology and not later than December 31, 2008.

Environmental site clean-up: Colpitts will proceed immediately to develop an environmental clean-up plan for submittal to the State Department of Ecology. Based upon the remedial action plan, cost estimates will be prepared. The cost of the remediation plan and clean-up will be deducted from the purchase price.

Colpitts would be responsible for any environmental remediation that must be done at the property. If any contamination is discovered to have migrated beyond the property boundary, the parties will attempt to reach an agreement on which party will perform any remediation work necessary from the property boundary out to the center-line of the adjoining streets, and then the City would have responsibility for addressing any contamination issues beyond that point.

If clean-up costs are projected exceed the $270,000 cap, either the buyer or City may terminate the agreement and the City would reimburse up to $30,000 of the buyer’s environmental remedial action plan costs.

Sewer main relocation. Also included in the cap are costs associated with relocating the existing sewer that bisects the site.

So, while this sounds like a great deal for the city to bring more residents downtown, there are a lot of unkowns, especially regarding possible contamination of the site. If that situation eventually gets sticky, I'm sure we'll be reading a lot more about this.

Here is the entire staff report and the two attachments (Purcase and Sale Agreement and the Map):