Spring District/Bel-Red Development News and Photos

I believe the next building has first floor retail - the one under construction in Bruce’s first photo. REI will also have (one?) retail unit, although perhaps we should assume that will be an REI store. And the Brewpub should break ground fairly soon.

Isn’t the Pine Properties complex on the other side of 120th supposed to start soon? I’m not sure exactly what is going on there, but it’s a big site.

araman0 said:

Is retail going in the first floor of that almost-complete phase 2 residential building? When I walked the neighborhood earlier this year I had a hard time telling where the retail would be concentrated.

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From memory, Residential phase 2 has no ground floor retail. Phase 3 (the AMLI development facing 120th) will have 6,000 sq ft of retail accessed from 121st. And the 11-storey office building that recently broke ground will have about 12,000 sq ft of retail split into four units (http://www.thespringdistrict.com/files/4515/2649/3171/180425_Marketing_Plans_Building_16_Page_01.pdf)

The Pine Forest property on the other side of 120th will have 6,000 sq ft of retail facing 120th, though it will be built in three phases and there is no sign of phase 1 starting (https://development.bellevuewa.gov/...er_4779004/File/pdf/Land Use/13-113123-LP.pdf - see page 30.)

I thought I also read about a 10,000 sq ft indoor market space adjacent to phase 3, but I can't remember where I saw that. Maybe that was part of the REI plan...surely I didn't dream it...

Anthony

Anything77 said:

From memory, Residential phase 2 has no ground floor retail.

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OK, my memory was wrong, There is a restaurant and retail, according to the current Major Projects doc (page 11) https://development.bellevuewa.gov/...pdf/Development Services/lu_MajorProjects.pdf

That's good.

Great drone shot. On the right, the wood structure of the AMLI apartments has topped out. East of there, beyond the green space, the concrete pad is where the brewpub and a restaurant should break ground in early 2019. The GIX building looks small now that space is filling up around it. East of that, the hole in the ground is a ten-storey building that Facebook is rumored to be interested in. The western half of the main REI building is already up to the second floor. The hole in the ground just west of there will be underground parking, with a 10,000 sq ft indoor (farmer's?) market on top. REI will also have the site to the east, bordering 124th, but that's still being used for staging. In the bottom left of the photo you can just see the edge of the culvert that the rail line will run through. The station is presumably just out of shot, about halfway up the the frame.

Ginkgo said:

It doesn't appear that Lake Bellevue is very pedestrian-friendly. Is there no public access? Is the entire shore of the lake in private ownership?

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It's totally encircled by offices and condos. If you visit one of the restaurants you can get a good view of the lake, but it's not that nice, has a rather corporate-office feel. Occasionally maps of the future of Wilburton show a green circle around Lake Bellevue, which gives me hope that it might be turned into a park with a larger ring of buildings set back, looking towards the lake rather than sitting directly on top of it. I think that would be the best use of that land. I'm not sure how likely that is, but it's my dream...

It is natural: it was originally called Lake Sturtevant, after the first settler in the area. It is still drained by Sturtevant Creek, which runs under Whole Foods parking lot then down the east side of I405, into Mercer Slough. I don’t know how healthy it is at present given the buildings over the water.

I hope a commercial developer sees that if you set the buildings 100ft back from the lake, rather than on top of it, then you’d get a much larger ring of lakefront property than today, as well as a greater sense of place. But the proximity of 12th St to the north and the rail line to the west might not leave enough space to do that.

I beg to differ: it is larger than it looks because there are buildings on top of it. Move the buildings back and restore the shoreline, and it is a similar size to Larsen Lake, around 10 acres according to the internet. That’s not a big lake but it’s still a nice place to be. Add a - say - 50ft buffer of green space all around Lake Bellevue, and you’d have a nice urban oasis, with pedestrian and bicycle access from the adjacent trail. It has potential to be so much more than it is today.
Anthony

Does anyone know when they're going to break ground on the brew pub? The "Here Comes the Brew Pub" signs have been up for at least two years, but they don't seem in a hurry to actually bring it. By the end of the year there will be ~800 apartments, then sometime next year Facebook and REI will move in. What are they waiting for?

DawgFan said:

I'm really curious who actually lives at the Spring District right now. FB and REI haven't moved in yet, there's zero retail or restaurants, and light rail is still 4 years away. Rental rates are essentially on par with downtown Bellevue. Other than its proximity to both downtown Bellevue and the Redmond tech corridor, I can't think of a compelling reason to live there in its current state.

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Like-for-like (size and newness) I think it is a little cheaper than downtown Bellevue, though I don't have data at hand. Ad-hoc, I know someone who was relo'd to Seattle by Amazon, and chose to live at Sparc the first several months while shopping for a house in Bellevue; I assume price was a factor. GIX is open for business, and presumably some students rent in the Spring District.

Having said that, I have wondered if they're slowing completion of the other phases. Arras looked virtually complete 6 months ago, but only opened two weeks ago. And AMLI hardly seems to change week to week: the wooden shell has been complete for some time, and covered by a shroud, windows fitted but no siding, for months.

mhays said:

Forgot to mention...looked like it was scraping the site a week ago when I biked past.

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Activity has definitely picked up in the last week, and yesterday it looked like they were starting to excavate.

Also, the brew pub is making progress at last. They have the steel grid in for the foundation but it didn't look ready to pour concrete yet. Maybe this will be ready right around the time the first Facebook building is occupied in early 2020.

Great photos as ever. I wonder how long that little car rental site and old Safeway training building in the SE corner of the block (next to FB building #2) is redeveloped

Just one call-out: the bike pavilion hasn't begun yet. I believe it will be immediately north of the "indoor market" building: right where there is a patch of fresh asphalt in the bottom right of photo #2.

I'm curious if REI plans to move its Bellevue store into the building just south of there (Two stories, between AMLI and the crane). I walked past last week and it looks about the right size.

DawgFan said:

It's sort of a waste that the REI buildings are only 2 and 5 floors, respectively. The footprint of the buildings is massive but combined they only total 400k sq feet of space.

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Yeah, I think the main building could be about twice as dense as it is, but REI got in early and got a lot of land for their money. It looks very distinctive and will be quite a landmark. The secondary REI lots to the east and west are more complicated, but much less dense. To the east it’s a (private?) garden, to the west it’s a pavilion with what really looks like a flagship REI store. It’s nice to have variation in height, but time will tell if it’s under-built.

With 3 FB buildings and REI filled, there should be ~8,000 jobs in the Spring District by the time the blue line opens. Maybe could be double that, once the Spring District, Pine Forest, and the Sound Transit property are all complete? It’s starting to look like some serious ToD.