While plans remain on hold for redevelopment of Four Corner Square, the owner of the property, Kite Development, has taken another step to solidify its commitment to the site.

Mark Jenkins, senior vice president for Kite, which is based in Indianapolis said Tuesday that after considering pulling back construction bonds for the site in September the company decided to hang onto them.

“We’ve been talking to the city (about pulling the bonds) but it has been nothing other than conversations,” Jenkins said. “We’ve made the decision to leave everything the way it’s been. The main reason for not asking a return of any of (the bonds) is that we would lose our permits.”

Toward the end of the summer, Kite had renewed its construction bonds, but was considering pulling them back as a cost saving measure. The bonds are required by the city as part of the permitting process because they essentially provide an insurance policy.

Those construction bonds have an annual renewal fee to keep them active and given that Kite did not have immediate plans to build on the property at the intersection of state Route 169 and state Route 516 it made sense to at least consider saving some cash.

Jenkins explained in September that Kite typically does not operate this way.

“A lot of it goes back to just permitting issues,” he said in September. “We kind of got caught in a situation, through no fault of anybody’s … there’s a lot of pieces to fit into that puzzle dealing with the subarea plan, dealing with WashDOT, dealing with the city of Maple Valley and on top of that relocating a tenant to a new building. Unfortunately, that’s just the way the world is moving, things just take longer.”

Since September, Jenkins said, he has tried to improve communications with Maple Valley staff by reaching out to City Manager David Johnston.

Jenkins explained that in September when he last spoke with The Reporter, he “wasn’t aware of the new city manager.”

“Over the last few weeks or so I’ve had the chance to catch up with him on the phone,” he said. “We’re just trying to get acquainted at this point.”

Because Johnston last worked in Indiana, the pair had some common ground, Jenkins explained.

“We had done three projects in the town he used to be town manager,” Jenkins said. “We know similar people.”

Jenkins said he hopes to come out to Maple Valley soon and meet with Johnston to further “foster a dialog” between Kite and the city.

One thing that has not changed in the past six weeks is the fact the project is still in a holding pattern, Jenkins said.

Nearly five years after purchasing the commercial property and about two years after buying the neighboring wrecking yard — the future site for a new 60,000 square foot Johnson’s Home and Garden — Kite is just not sure when it’s going to start moving forward on the project.

That doesn’t change the fact, Jenkins added, that Kite still has every intention of getting the job done at Four Corner Square.

“We’re committed,” he said. “We’re not changing our approach on anything and we’d love to see this project through.”