diff --git a/federation/develop/develop.sh b/federation/develop/develop.sh
index 43dd65c542c..f03966a6b16 100755
--- a/federation/develop/develop.sh
+++ b/federation/develop/develop.sh
@@ -43,10 +43,15 @@ readonly TMP_DIR="$(mktemp -d)"
 readonly FEDERATION_OUTPUT_ROOT="${LOCAL_OUTPUT_ROOT}/federation"
 readonly VERSIONS_FILE="${FEDERATION_OUTPUT_ROOT}/versions"
 
-detect-project
-readonly KUBE_PROJECT="${KUBE_PROJECT:-${PROJECT:-}}"
+if [[ "${KUBERNETES_PROVIDER}" == "gke" || "${KUBERNETES_PROVIDER}" == "gce" ]]; then
+  detect-project
+  readonly KUBE_PROJECT="${KUBE_PROJECT:-${PROJECT:-}}"
+  readonly KUBE_REGISTRY="${KUBE_REGISTRY:-gcr.io/${KUBE_PROJECT}}"
+else
+  readonly KUBE_PROJECT="${KUBE_PROJECT:-${PROJECT:-federation}}"
+  readonly KUBE_REGISTRY="${KUBE_REGISTRY:-localhost:5000/${KUBE_PROJECT}}"
+fi
 
-readonly KUBE_REGISTRY="${KUBE_REGISTRY:-gcr.io/${KUBE_PROJECT}}"
 # In dev environments this value must be recomputed after build. See
 # the build_image() function. So not making it readonly
 KUBE_VERSION="${KUBE_VERSION:-}"