Bellevue: Spring District

[CityView Jim]

Originally Posted by RMacherat

Realizing this is only the most general of early representations ... I like the way they have offset the placement of those virtually identical boxes to give it more of a hip/playful atmosphere for the pedestrians.

Will I still be alive when Bellevue can be considered hip and playful?

[bgwah]

Pearl District? Haha, this should be our new theme when Portlanders try to compare their city to Seattle. You're only in the same league as Bellevue, neener neener.

[cameronrex]

Originally Posted by bgwah

Pearl District? Haha, this should be our new theme when Portlanders try to compare their city to Seattle. You're only in the same league as Bellevue, neener neener.

Lol. That is so mean.

[Capitol Hill]

I'm glad the area is going to be transformed, but I wonder if it will just dilute the vibrancy that Bellevue could have.

[D Green]

Bellevue is going to need this Spring District to propel future densification in its dt core. It might draw away some attention in the middle in the short term but we'll need it if we want dt Bellevue to continue to grow upwards in the long term.

[alexjonlin]

Huh yeah. Aren't there some statistics that say that people tend to live like 20 minutes away from their work on the mode that they use, regardless of which mode they use? So transit users who work in Downtown might want to live in the Spring District so there's a relatively high amount of separation between home and work, and in that way the two neighborhoods could feed off of each other.

[DawgFan]

http://www.djc.com/news/re/12049572.html

January 31, 2013

Real Estate Buzz: WRC to start Spring District this summmer
By NAT LEVY
Real Estate Reporter
Developer Wright Runstad & Co. is ready to begin construction this year on the long anticipated Spring District.

The 36-acre site is the former home of a Safeway distribution center. The first of three phases should start by summer with demolition of a warehouse, which will pave the way for building a new network of streets and the first two office buildings totaling 490,000 square feet.

[DawgFan]

This is good news since Security Properties has been a pretty active apartment builder:

http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/n...-deal-for.html

(btw, Security Properties is a terrible name for a development company)

[Doomgoggles]

The light rail station will be at the north end of the park, and the first thing passengers will see when they get off of the train will be the steel-construction, eight-story apartment building.

Steel apartment building? I thought that was avoided due to vibrations and sound?

[pwalker]

Wright Runstad doesn't mess around. This will happen, but IMO, it is a little close to downtown Bellevue, by that I mean eventually these two areas will probably merge.

My overall best view of the Puget Sound region would include major business centers in Lynnwood, (a plan exists, but has not been acted upon), the Eastside (mentioned above), Renton, Federal Way, and perhaps Kent. I don't see much evidence of any new progress in any of these areas except for the Wright Runstad proposal in Overlake. I guess development is easier where the money is.

[RMacherat]

Good to have p back typing again.

[Ruffhauser]

From todays DJC.

http://www.djc.com/news/re/12051365.html

March 28, 2013

Spring District starts with new apartments

By NAT LEVY
Journal Staff Reporter

Security Properties will build the first housing in the 36-acre Spring District in Bellevue.

Wright Runstad & Co., which is redeveloping the industrial area east of Interstate 405 with offices, housing, a hotel, retail and open space, said Security Properties will buy a 2.5-acre parcel in the southwest corner of the district and build 316 housing units in five buildings.

Construction is expected to begin next year. Security Properties also has an option to build 225 units on an adjacent parcel.

GGLO is designing the apartments. Security Properties has not picked a general contractor.

Greg Johnson, president of Wright Runstad, said the company chose Security Properties because of projects it has done in Seattle and San Francisco. He said the company's Epicenter Apartments in Fremont have a unique design that has helped galvanize the neighborhood.

“They really understood the type of neighborhood we were trying to create in the Spring District,” he said. “They have delivered on their development projects and have a great reputation among equity investors.”

John Marasco, chief development officer for Security Properties, said his company likes the location. Proximity to Interstate 405 and state Route 520 will allow Spring District residents to get around the region easily, and by 2023 the new neighborhood will have a Link light rail station.

Marasco said the area is ideal for people who work in Bellevue's hospital district — which includes Overlake Hospital Medical Center along with several other medical buildings — as well as Microsoft employees.

“We are thinking that with the right housing, in terms of style, quality and mix, that we can attract people, who might live downtown because they don't have any other choice, to this alternative location that is significantly less congested,” Marasco said.

The five apartment buildings will vary in height, with the tallest at 80 feet and the others at 65 feet.

Design is still in the schematic phase, Marasco said.

A landscaped staircase at the corner of Northeast 12th Street and 120th Avenue Northeast will serve as a pedestrian entrance to the Spring District.

The housing will be part of the first phase of the Spring District, along with six office buildings and two acres of parks.

One day the district could have as much as 3.7 million square feet of office space and 900 housing units, along with a 200,000-square-foot hotel and 166,000 square feet of retail space.

Johnson said if a tenant comes along that wants all the office space, it could be ready to open by 2017 or 2018.

Wright Runstad will develop the first two office buildings, totaling 490,000 square feet. The company is seeking permits for those buildings but will wait for a tenant before starting construction, Johnson said.

NBBJ is the architect for those buildings, and Howard S. Wright Cos. is the general contractor.

Construction on the first phase will begin this summer with demolition of existing structures, and installation of utilities and infrastructure. Some of the existing warehouses may be retained for a brewery and food truck space.

The first office and apartment projects are expected to be completed in 2015.

Bellevue-based Broderick Group is leasing the office properties, and Jon Hallgrimson and Frank Bosl of CBRE are representing Wright Runstad on residential land sales.

[DawgFan]

I drive by that site every week and it's crazy to picture an urban district "springing up" (pun intended) there. I wish this project was happening on auto row instead since that'll be the logical area for downtown to expand.

[Seattlelife]

Originally Posted by RMacherat

Good to have p back typing again.

Agreed, pwalker is a good contributer. Now we need to convince pwright to move back from LA and share his Seattle photos some more!

[ZKB9]

Great looking building!

[vrsprng]

New Website available for Bellevue's Spring District. This is worth taking a look.

http://www.thespringdistrict.com/

[alexjonlin]

Yeah that website's been around for a while. Do the renderings at least slightly remind anyone else of Portland's Lloyd District? I sure hope it doesn't end up like that, though, that neighborhood is quite the urban failure that Portland-lovers don't really like to talk about...

[jessejb]

Looks good!

Oh man Seattle needs a new tallest- a silver spire. The Columbia Tower looks so retro.

[RMacherat]

Sorry to be unkind, but don't any of the Bellevue planners look at that wreck and see Eastern Europe c 1955 where Eastern Bellevue, the leader of edge of edge city dynamism ought to be?

[vrsprng]

It is kinda dense. Hopefully it doesn't end up looking like a cluster of Commie Blocks.