A month after voting to terminate a partnership with JMS Development to transform Osprey Pointe into a mixed-use development, Port of Pasco commissioners have declined the developer’s offer to pay $11.5 million for the property. 

Commissioners cast their votes after meeting in executive session for just under 30 minutes on Jan. 14.  

The offer to pay cash for the entire 55-acre parcel along the Columbia River is the latest effort by Jim Sexton of JMS to move forward his yearslong effort to build a development with hundreds of homes as detached and apartment-style condos, along with dozens of commercial spaces, including a large Market Hall with wineries and an art gallery, and an event center with outdoor amphitheater. 

The ending of the partnership with JMS, which dated from 2019, came after months of a cooling relationship from the port. Sexton has cited a variety of unforeseen challenges to moving the project forward. In the process, he missed required deadlines prompting commissioners to make another extension if he were to continue.  

Port commissioners told Sexton in December the drawn-out process and ongoing need for the port to be involved in minute aspects of the project gave them doubts that it could move forward.