The City of Kirkland is seeking qualified firms with proven expertise to submit a written proposal to support the City in the creation of a Tax Increment Area (“TIA” or “increment area”). The Consultant selected for award of contract shall also guide the City through the compilation of required documents and processes that support future debt issuance for the development of infrastructure, and other community development goals for the City of Kirkland. The ability of the City to create a TIA (that utilizes tax increment financing, or “TIF”) is the result of the State of Washington approving ESHB 1189 (the “Act”), effective July 24, 2021. This allows cities, counties, and port districts each with the ability to create up to two TIAs for which assessed value (“AV”) at the time of creation must not exceed the lower of $200 million or 20% of the entity’s “AV”, with the “increment value” (as defined in the Act) resulting from each TIA being leveraged to finance improvements in the increment area.

The City is concurrently developing a Station Area Plan (SAP) in the area surrounding the future WSDOT/Sound Transit I 405/NE 85th Street Interchange and Inline Stride Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) Station. The BRT station, developed by Sound Transit, has been designed to connect Kirkland to the Link Light Rail at Bellevue and the Lynnwood Transit Center. The SAP, which began in 2019 and is currently ongoing, is looking at land use, urban design, open space, transportation, stormwater and utilities, and sustainability in the area approximately one-half mile from the BRT station, and will result in adoption of a Final Station Area Plan including a form-based code, a FEIS that supplements the Comprehensive Plan in this area, and a Planned Action Ordinance. As part of the planning process and alternative consideration, land-use and fiscal impacts models were developed and representative infrastructure needs have been identified to serve the potential growth in the Station Area. Some projects are necessary for redevelopment to occur, making them candidates for Tax Increment Financing. The successful proposer for this work will be conducted as a sub-consultant to the City’s prime consultant on the SAP, Mithun, to ensure the coordination and integration with the overall effort. The City team contacts for this project include leads from the Planning and Building Department together with the Finance Department, and include ongoing coordination with an inter-departmental team.

Additional information regarding the 85th Station Area Plan, please visit the City’s website at: https://www.kirklandwa.gov/Government/Departments/Planning-and-Building/...

The execution of this agreement is not a guarantee of work or that the City will hire the Consultant to perform work.

The City desires to establish a TIA to support specific eligible public improvements which will not only attract private development within its increment area but also the surrounding private developments. Candidate eligible projects will be identified by subject matter experts on the Mithun team, and the strategy and implementation developed by the Tax Increment Financing Consultant will be done in coordination this effort.

A copy of this Request for Proposal (RFP) may be obtained from City’s web site at http://www.kirklandwa.gov/. Click on the Business tab at the top of the page and then click on the Request for Proposals link found under “Doing Business with the City”.