Urban-Style Project Will Bring taller Buildings to Bothell

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By Nathan Hurst

After decades of spreading out, suburban Bothell is about to go up.

A $125 million mixed-use project will bring the city's first mid-rise structures - plus 400 new condominiums, office, retail and restaurant space - to an area just north of the University of Washington, Bothell campus along Beardslee Boulevard near Interstate 405.

The project could be completed as early as fall 2008.

The planned complex, dubbed Bothell Gateway, is the first project in a long-range plan to bring urban-style development to the growing city, said Jeff Smith, senior planner for the city.

"Bothell used to be just some farm fields and some dairy barns, but it's changing," he said. "This is the first time we've really gotten into what I call more urban development - high suburban, low urban."

Steve Cox, whose West Ridge Land Corp. is majority owner and manager of the project, said Bothell Gateway will include 60,000 square feet of office space in a five-story tower, with condos housed in a similar-height building.

About 90,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space will surround pedestrian plazas and parklike space in the eight-building complex.

While the development is an example of the type of growth city planners are looking for, Bothell residents and leaders have yet to decide whether they want future growth to rise even further, said Smith.

Smith said Bothell's most liberal building height limits - around 100 feet - aren't located downtown. That area instead has deliberately retained a lower profile, unlike Bellevue, which has encouraged high-rise development in much of its downtown in recent decades.

Cox, a Bothell resident of seven years, said he believes the project will bring a needed public space for commerce and socializing to the city, particularly serving the needs of students at the nearby UW and Cascadia Community College campus. He said the location near the college was appealing because of the draw for retail and restaurant tenants.

Interest from potential tenants has been strong, he said, but declined to release names of possible merchants. The 9 �-acre site's location near the Exit 24 interchange from I-405 was also appealing, Cox said. However, the project's developers will have to complete a $2.5 million road upgrade project on Beardslee Boulevard and 112th Avenue Northeast to provide access to the complex.

About $800,000 of that cost will come from public funding, he said.

Cox's company purchased part of the project's parcel from the developers of Gateway Center, a project that would have brought two office buildings to the area but folded in 2001, following funding troubles.

The new buildings and plazas will be pedestrian-focused, substantially different from developments in other suburban communities, said Phil McCullough, an architect who worked on the complex's design team at Seattle-based Hackworth Group Architecture/Planning.

"It's a really strong urban design," he said. "You can compare it to the really nice urban areas in Seattle, Bellevue and Redmond where the automobile isn't the focus. Bothell's a growing community and they need these kinds of spaces."

Cox said he sees the project as just a beginning in the city's transformation.

"I believe Bothell's been overlooked by the traditional mid- and large-scale developers," he said. "But I'm local, and this is what the city is looking for."