Spring District/Bel-Red Development News and Photos

Also, on the topic of the Spring District, it appears that Block 5 is now officially underway. They're breaking up the existing asphalt and I assume we'll see more heavy equipment next week.

Holland is pursuing the adjacent property to their big project currently underway in Bellevue. Makes perfect sense because they can share the road improvements that are required at their adjacent site that's currently under construction. 7 stories, 213 units. Bel Red needs as many new units as they can get.

Vulcan has a camera on the site. Looks like some activity but not a full-blown construction site quite yet.

I might be missing something but the cool aerial still shows the hotel and residential:

Another one with some extra detail: 288 units, 8,600SF of retail. This shows up on the map above as "Bellevue Station". I can see a potential challenge emerging with all these projects related to the street improvements: many of the new/expanded streets will be partially finished until adjacent sites get redeveloped, rendering those streets basically useless other than as driveways.

Looks like the city has already taken what they need from that parcel for the 130th extension (see below). Presumably the new owners won't need to pay for that extension since it's already in the city's capital improvements budget. Looking at the previously posted map of new streets, it doesn't look like they'll be required to add any new streets either (although an alley/driveway to the south might be in order). I'd like to see their city development review packet when it comes along.
At $18m for 288 units, it's about $62k/unit. Consider that Vulcan paid $18m for their 249 unit entitled project to the north, which works out to $72k/unit. If they spend $2m on entitlements that's basically even par with what Vulcan paid for their site across the street.

FYI, block 13, next to the GIX building is up for the final city review. No changes from previous posts. It's a nice looking building. Interesting that they're using the same parking garage entry as the GIX building next door. Definitely helpful with reducing conflicts between vehicles and pedestrians.
There are only 6 parcels left to redevelop: the vacant parcel east of the former REI HQ, two parcels next to the station (one on either side of the tracks) and three parcels to the north, which are currently being used for construction staging. Pretty cool to see this develop into something substantial.

This is a little out of the usual area where development is happening but nice to see more housing regardless.

As previously reported, Holland Partner Group is advancing their next Bellevue project. Their current project under construction in the background of the rendering.

I wouldn't be surprised if Wright Runstad already has an option on the Safeway properties, maybe the bottling plant too.
I also did a little dumpster diving on the internet and found a Safeway "Supplier Guide" (available here). I was honestly shocked to see that the Bellevue plant is a HUGE part of their operations. They only have four ice cream plants in the US and Canada--and the next closest one to us is in Edmonton, Alberta! Otherwise, you're going all the way to Phoenix to get Safeway branded ice cream products manufactured. There are bread and milk plants in Portland metro (Clackamas) but that's it for the whole PNW, and presumably Montana, Wyoming, and the Dakotas. They may also use contractors to make their products, but with the specialty equipment needed to make all that stuff I wouldn't be surprised if they did it all themselves.
Anyway, in light of this, two things come to mind, which are somewhat in conflict: First, the Bellevue plant is probably hugely important to Safeway's everyday operations so I can understand why they would be reluctant to move it. Second, if it's truly serving a regional or interstate market, there's no need for it to be in such a valuable location. It could easily move somewhere else along the I5 or I90 corridor.
Time will tell...

SummerHill is back with their final review for their Highland Park project. The two-story units in the center look pretty cool. I didn't realize how big the project is. With 397 units and 361 parking spaces on 2 levels. No retail.