King County has turned down an offer from a potential developer to purchase the Donut Hole property in Maple Valley.

According to Lauren Smith, land use policy advisor for King County, the county turned down a proposal from Polygon Northwest — though Smith did not identify the developer — to purchase the 156-acre property located at Southeast Kent-Kangley Road and 228th Avenue Southeast on March 13.

“In the current real estate market, the offer we received for the property was not adequate, both in terms of funding the relocation of Roads operations to Ravensdale, and in terms of the value of the property,” Smith wrote in an email. “Moving forward at this time would not be a wise real estate portfolio management decision.  Given the state of the County Road fund, it would be fiscally irresponsible.”

Smith did not disclose how much Polygon Northwest offered for the property.

The previous developer to express interest in the Donut Hole, YarrowBay terminated a purchase and sale agreement with the County in February of last year.

YarrowBay had at one point planned to pay $51 million for the property with the idea of a master planned development with more than 1,600 residences as well as retail and commercial businesses.

Maple Valley City Council member Noel Gerken stated that he received a phone message from Deputy County Executive Fred Jarret informing him of the decision.

“He (Jarret) said they weren’t going to go forward with Polgyon because the offer didn’t ‘pencil out,'” Gerken said in a telephone interview. “I’m not surprised. The economy’s down, property values are down, and the first time they went around a few years ago, when they were talking to YarrowBay, they had a very different economy.”

Smith also wrote that the county still intends to eventually allow Maple Valley to annex the property.

“We still believe that ultimately, the best course of action will be to move off of Summit and allow the site to develop as part of the city of Maple Valley.”

Phone calls to Polygon Northwest were not returned.

This story will be updated as more information is received.