A developer wants to build homes and shops on a city lot in Kodiak — if the city sells

A developer wants to turn a vacant city-owned lot near the Kodiak airport into six apartments and six retail spaces — a two-story, roughly $1.6 million project that would add both housing and storefronts to town.

First, though, the city has to agree to sell the land.

The Kodiak City Council took up the proposal from Kodiak Jacks LLC at a work session this week but made no decision — work sessions don't allow votes. The question in front of it is straightforward: direct staff to move toward selling the 0.68-acre parcel, or drop it.

If the council moves ahead, the lot would go to auction at no less than its appraised value of $200,000, and only bidders with development plans the council finds acceptable could compete.

For the city, a sale would hand a tax-exempt parcel to a private owner — putting it on the tax rolls and, if the project gets built, adding six homes in a place that, like much of Alaska, could use them.