A crowd of curious Burien residents turned out for a Sept. 15 open house to learn the latest plans for the city's proposed Town Square project.

And Urban Partners LLC, the city's developer, put together a presentation that encompassed how the Town Square will be designed, how many residential and retail units there would be, what the city park will look like, and how the library and city hall building will be shared.

Residential housing in Town Square, originally planned to be apartments, now will be primarily condominiums.

"There's a demand in the area for condos," said Steve Botkin, public information officer for Burien. "Everything is for-sale housing."

There will be 307 units for sale, including studio, one- and two-bedrooms condos.

There is going to be a focus group to see what the public wants in their condominiums, noted Mike Miller of Miller Condominium Marketing.

"Quite a few people have been excited to have condominiums."

The city has received $1.4 million from the King County Housing Authority to provide 10 affordable Town Square housing units.

"This project will attract younger people, people looking to be close to Seattle, people wanting to live near the airport and retirees," said John Gunn, manager of the Town Square project.

"There has been very little housing built in the Burien market," Gunn continued. "Burien has one of the highest vacancy rates in the area."

A presale on the condos will happen a year before completion, said Miller.

Still unclear is what the pricing will be for the condos. Developers are hoping that through focus groups with residents they will get a better idea of what they want in the condos and that will help to determine the price.

Citizens can sign up to be part of a focus group at www.burientownsquare.com.

The idea of having a cinema included in the Town Square development has been scrapped. More housing untis have been included.

"The movie theater is set aside for more housing in parcel one," said Botkin.

Many residents raised questions about the proposed theater during the meeting on their comment cards.

"It doesn't appear that the cinema scheme will be feasible at this time," Gunn replied.

But the city will continue to work to bring a theater to this area with a cinema operator who has long expressed an interest in locating one here, said City Manager Gary Long.

Urban Partners also presented their plans for the type of retail that will be included with Town Square.

They will begin a marketing process for retail shops, which will take four to eight weeks to provide a good sense of the retail component, said Dani Kirkland, retail commercial broker.

So far a fitness center, a bank, white-table-cloth restaurants, and a bookstore have expressed interest in the retail space, said Dan Rosenfeld, principal of Urban Partners.

"We would love to have local businesses involved with retail. We would like to have more one-of-a-kind businesses," Rosenfeld added.

He said he would like to keep some of the bigger chain stores out Town Square to maintain the downtown feel of Burien.

"You want to have retail that supports the people living here," said Roger Nyhus, president and CEO of Nyhus Communications.

A three-story building at the corner of Southwest 152nd Street and Fourth Avenue Southwest will house a new Regional King County Library on the first floor and a new Burien City Hall on the second, with shared meeting rooms on the third floor.

The new library will be twice the size of the current facility, with more books, more chairs, more seating - and wireless capabilities.

One resident suggested, however, that "the current library is fine, it's quiet and beautiful, and it doesn't need to move."

The current Burien Library could be converted into a new community center when the new facility is completed.

Another resident expressed the fear that Burien residents could be taxed out of their home to pay for the project.

But Long said financing for the project will be without an excise tax on property taxes.

Long added that the city hall and the park will be built with city money that has been saved over the years.

"From the budget over the last 12 years we've been able to save money," Long noted.

"It's [the presentation] primary goal is to engage the public in open dialogue about what they want in their town square," said Rosenfeld.

"It's been a collaborative process since the beginning of the project and the turnout shows with the enthusiasm and commitment," he added.

Sara Loken can be reached at lifestyles@robinsonnews.com or 206-444-4873