Work Starting on $2.3 Billion Washington Project

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Construction work is scheduled to start next week on a $2.3 billion mixed use development in Bellevue, Washington, described as "the nation's largest transit-oriented development."

The 36-acre project, known as the Spring District, will include 5.3 million square feet of office space in buildings ranging from six to 12 stories, as well as 1,000 homes, a hotel and retail space. A light rail transit center at the heart of the project will connect the project to Seattle, Bellevue and Microsoft's headquarters in nearby Redmond.

The developers say they are fashioning the project after the Pearl District in Portland. The design features narrow pedestrian-friendly streets and a network of connected parks, targeting high tech companies and employees.

The transit and pedestrian orientation is "more than a theme, it's a driver for how we're thinking about the Spring District as a new neighborhood," said Greg Johnson, president of Wright Runstad, told the Bellevue Reporter.

The design is a "big switch from the typical Eastside pattern of superblocks, national chains and car-based urban designs," he said.

The development is on the site of the former distribution center for the Safeway supermarket chain. Seattle developer Wright Runstad and partner Shorenstein acquired the site from Safeway in 2007, paying $68 million.

The project is designed to link to "an emerging transit and technology corridor in the heart of Puget Sound's high tech Eastside submarket," according to promotional material.

But Spring will try to attract businesses and residents to an area that was primarily a warehouse district.

"It's absolutely virgin territory for Class A office," Steve Schwartz, managing director of Jones Lang LaSalle's Bellevue office, told the Seattle Times.

But the developers say the central location, proximity to many of the region's major high-tech companies and the modern design will attract clients to the development.

"You've got to set the vision, like Portland did with the Pearl District," Matthew Gardner of Gardener Economics told Seattle Business. "You've got to sell people on the vision."

The project will be built in three phases. The first phase will include six office buildings, a park and residential space. Earlier this year Security Properties purchased a 2.5-acre parcel for a 316-unit apartment project that will be part of the initial development.