Why have two downtown lots have remained empty for over a decade? The story of the Seattle Times lot and the Pioneer Square Station lot. (Build Core)
Housing price dynamics in the US, UK, and New Zealand. (Patrick Boyle)
This is an open thread.
Why have two downtown lots have remained empty for over a decade? The story of the Seattle Times lot and the Pioneer Square Station lot. (Build Core)
Housing price dynamics in the US, UK, and New Zealand. (Patrick Boyle)
This is an open thread.
Big doings planned for Bellevue Evans Plaza Appologies in advance to our ace reporter Sam (expert on all things) for not providing a better link. This is a transit waste land. I’m pretty sure our Briddle Trails community group will oppose it and win out. FWIW, this is one of the non-starter areas ST propose for an east base. The way it works… ST picks their spot and put up all the alternates as non-starters; how the game is played.
It’s less than 1 mile walk to the Bel-Red station, that isn’t a wasteland?
Very few of the 800 households are going to walk a mile every day to get to a train that probably is taking them in the opposite direction from where they came. The appeal of this area is that it’s close to Microsoft. From Evans Plaza it’s about the same distance, abeit up a steep hill to get to Overlake Village. But then your already on the Microsoft campus. The 249 used to stop at the corner of 24th and 140th but not sine the pandemic. There is still lots of development yet to build around Overlake Village (e.g. the old Sears site). And there’s lots of empty space within a 1/4 mile of Bel-Red. Plenty of industrial park right next to Marymoor. East Main has a bunch of large hotels which surprisingly add nothing to Link ridership. But they have large, mostly empty parking lots. One was recently demolished but not yet developed.
It is odd that withing a mile walk to two light rail stations you have to walk just as far or farther to catch an infrequent bus which is less likely to take you anywhere you want to go than the train. So yeah, it’s a transit wasteland. Everyone is going to drive and the street grid there is not built to support it. This was one of the sites ST proposed for OMF-E.
The appeal of this area is that it’s close to Microsoft.
That is a good point. I could definitely see someone walking from there to Microsoft. It is about a half hour walk which is reasonable for a direct walk to work. I’m not sure how pleasant it is though. You do have a lot of trees along the way but you also have a lot of high-speed roadways nearby (including the freeway). There is a bike trail although again it doesn’t like like a good section. I would imagine most people there would want a car just to get around and would prefer driving to work (even at Microsoft).
Of course things could change. Running a bus on 140th Avenue NE under the freeway is not a crazy idea. There are no ramps there so you avoid congestion. The same thing is true of NE 24th. The problem in both cases is that there isn’t much else along those corridors. You also have the stations pulling the buses away from those corridors. I think the best bet is if a bus route had this sort of segment: https://maps.app.goo.gl/M5cZJkZAiT2Sgd1U8. It is hard to see that happening any time soon though. Service is spread pretty thin on the East Side with a lot of buses only running every half hour (even after the restructure). I think it is quite likely that the area will remain a transit wasteland for a long time. Yes, it would have been a good site for an OMF.
Yeah, it is about a 20 minute walk to Bel-Red Station and longer to Redmond Tech. It is about a 10 minute walk to the nearest bus stop. Unfortunately that is the 226, which is (and will be) infrequent. It is too far to walk to frequent transit and even the walk to infrequent transit is long. So yeah, a transit wasteland sounds like an apt description.
Housing is housing. There’s often going to be some downside to a site. No nearby grocery store. Poor bus service. Next to a freeway. Long walk to Link station. And speaking of me knowing everything, Evans Plaza is the site of the former Skate King roller rink. (1974-2015. RIP)
I drove by a development notice board a couple of days ago, and looked up what’s going on. This is west of that senior development I mentioned the other day. This project is near NE 8th and 120th, about 1000 feet east Wilburton Station.
https://www.djc.com/news/re/12171740.html
Yeah, housing is housing. It is better to have sprawling, car-dependent housing than no housing at all. But it is crazy that we add density in areas like this when there are areas that actually have good transit that aren’t allowed to grow. There are also plenty of “borderline” areas. These are places that have mediocre transit but would have better transit if there was only a bit more development. I’m thinking of areas served by buses like the 24, 28 and 33. They serve some dense areas but they also serve areas that could use more development. Instead we are building in places like this. It isn’t alone. This apartment is being built along Highway 9 in the city of Lake Stevens. It is fairly isolated from other developments in the city. It is not impossible to walk to a bus stop but it also isn’t easy or pleasant: https://maps.app.goo.gl/mBvKoCnnWGMytwn66. These type of places have some things in common. They tend to be close to a major roadway. This makes them less desirable places to live. This is by design as apartments are often viewed as bad. They are also convenient for driving. By itself these sort of developments don’t really matter. But as a society it ends up being really bad. People are forced into a car-dependent lifestyle or they compete for the handful of places that are convenient and/or quiet. More people drive which is worse for everyone.
That’s right along the 520 trail. If they improve the connection to it, it might not be so terrible.
It’s not a terrible location now, and it will only get better over the years as the BelRed station area redevelops, and new bus routes are created for the residentially dense neighborhood.
It looks like this site wasn’t sold to a developer. It seems like the company that owns this 10 acre site, Evans Wakefield, is redeveloping their own property, so that would explain “why there?”
Their website says that they own a couple of large parcels much closer to BelRed Station, so hopefully they’ll want to redevelop them someday, as well.
https://evanswakefield.com/current/?owned-managed
Yes, it is a terrible location now. It is a terrible location from a transit perspective. Sure, there is the 520 trail but I don’t see that as major attraction — my guess is very few people will commute (or take other trips) by bike if they live there. Neither corridor has much density which is why Metro doesn’t run buses on them. At all. Of course that could change but I doubt it will. This isn’t enough to move the needle by itself and I don’t see a lot of other projects along the corridor changing things. And just imagine that it does. Will it create a better network or will it just force Metro into spreading an already thin level of service even thinner? I see more of the latter.
In contrast consider this little neighborhood here: https://maps.app.goo.gl/Hg9AseTMGcHpf77m9. It is not that far from the RapidRide B and the relatively frequent 245. It is also not far from grocery stores as well as an aging mall (that will likely be refurbished with a mix of housing and retail at some point). It is also not hard to imagine the area becoming more pedestrian and transit friendly. There is a large gap between 148th and 156th. A mid-block crosswalk would be great. Then Metro could add a bus stop on each side for the RapidRide B (given the large gap between stops there). Metro service doesn’t change — the buses just pick up more riders. Everyone benefits. This area makes sense for redevelopment but it won’t be, because it is zoned single family.
Again, this is common. I’m not upset about this development — I don’t think it matters much at all. It will add a little to the overall traffic (that the buses are stuck in, unfortunately) but it will make housing a bit more affordable in Bellevue. It is certainly not where we want development of this kind but it is a lot better than the sprawling housing developments that are common in the region.
Big hill both ways on bike trail. No fun.
It is not a good location, relative to the vast open parking lots next to 2 line stations.
“Big hill both ways on bike trail. No fun.”
Completely trivial with an e-bike.
To me, this looks like a classic “buy property adjacent to an upzoned area and obtain an upzone” to increase its value. I have to wonder if the property would have years of ownership changes with different successive proposal concepts before anything happens.
The question I would ask is if its further distance and new position as a transition area makes sense. There seem to be many areas in Bellevue that are closer to Link that seem better suited for higher density. However, there are plenty of denser neighborhoods around the region that aren’t close to Link, even in Bellevue.
Finally, I’ll just opine that BelRed station ideally should have been closer to NE 20th than where they put it. The current station location has an overlapping walkshed with the Spring District station and leaves a walkshed distance gap to the Overlake station. But what’s done is done. It’s a reminder that building rail stations and track is an installation choice that almost always lasts well over a century and shouldn’t be done cavalierly.
Al, you are an advisor to the developer. They ask you, what should we do with this 10 acre parcel? Leave it as it is? Redevelop into housing? Car dealerships? Offices? Something else? What would you tell them to do with it?
An advisor would either want to maximize the possible income or resale value of the property (investor) or find a property suitable for the kind of development that is being pursued (builder or developer). Property purchases that actually pencil out for the latter (developers) are not easily possible. The lengthy approval process is a major factor too as approvals can take a few years to clear.
Regardless, the City of Bellevue should consider what is in the city’s best interest most. I cannot say what I think that the City should do.
A mile from Belred Station, and a short walk to Safeway. It’s not that bad. If you don’t build anything until the transit is good, the transit will never be good.