Kenmore has offered extended leases to all existing businesses in the Kenmore Village shopping plaza, possibly allowing those businesses to stay in place until at least the end of 2011, according to Assistant City Manager Nancy Ousley.

Owner of Kenmore Fitness Center, Tom Dooley has been touting his extended tenure on site the loudest, even putting signs on Northeast Bothell Way.

Ousley noted Dooley’s lease and that of every other business in Kenmore Village was set to expire in October. With that in mind, she said city officials held several meetings with the center’s tenants over at least the last few weeks. Ousley said the city simply did not want to wait until the “11th hour,” until leases were about to expire, to hash out issues with Kenmore Village’s various tenants.

While the contract extensions were good news for Dooley and presumably other Kenmore Village business owners, Ousley said those extensions reflect continuing difficulties with the redevelopment of Kenmore Village.

“These are some pretty unusual economic conditions that the developers have been dealing with,” Ousley said.

The city long ago tabbed Seattle’s Urban Partners as the lead developer for what was projected to be a totally revamped Kenmore Village by the Lake, a mixed-use retail/residential development covering roughly 10 acres from Northeast 181st Street and 68th Avenue Northeast to the Park-and-Ride lot near Northeast 185th Street.

In May, Urban Partners management came en masse to a Kenmore City Council session. Their basic message seemed to be that the project, while stalled, was not forgotten.

“In terms of the project itself, we at Urban Partners are still committed and excited,” said Urban Partners Chief Financial Officer Matt Burton.

Urban Partners did not return a phone call for this story. But Ousley said company officials were involved during the talks with Kenmore Village’s current tenants. They also will be back before council in October or November, she added.

For her part, Ousley said city officials tried hard to meet the concerns of current Kenmore Village business owners. She said for Dooley and at least one other tenant — presumably the Little Gym aimed at youngsters — the ability to sell long-term memberships was a primary concern.

In the past, both Dooley and Little Gym owner Linda Hicks said such memberships are key to their survival.

“For sure we are being allowed to stay for at least the next couple of years, probably longer if the developer has more problems,” Dooley said recently.

Ousley said, in reality, Dooley and others were guaranteed a year’s notice with regard to the loss of their lease. She said that is another concession officials made to business owners. Ousley added that, normally, those businesses would have received about a 90-day notice to move. In the end, the effected businesses will have at least a year from the time they sign a lease extension before they have to move, with the potential, Ousley stressed, for staying put until at least 2011.

Ousley said besides the two gyms, similar lease extensions were offered to other businesses in Kenmore Village, including, probably most notably, Grocery Outlet. She did not want to go into details on a business-by-business basis, but said in some cases, business owners asked for a month-to-month or shorter term lease and the city complied with their wishes.

“Urban Partners,” Ousley added, “was fine with those arrangements.”