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March 6, 2015

Kirkland OKs changes for Totem Lake Mall

Image by CenterCal Properties [enlarge]
Redeveloping the 1970s shopping center would total one million square feet, with retail, offices, a movie theater, housing and parking.

The Kirkland City Council agreed on Wednesday to extend and amend a redevelopment agreement for Totem Lake Mall.

The developer is CenterCal Properties LLC of El Segundo, California. Pacific Coast Capital LLC is its financial partner. They plan to purchase the 26-acre property under the name Village at Totem Lake LLC.

The redevelopment would have a total of 1 million square feet when it's done. It would include 538,600 square feet of retail, 130,000 square feet of offices, a 650-seat movie theater, 395 residential units and a parking structure.

The original shopping center was built in the mid-1970s and has two main mall buildings with a total of 252,000 square feet, and a handful of smaller retail buildings.

According to planning documents filed with the city, the mall has become obsolete because of its age and configuration.

Kirkland first entered into a redevelopment agreement in 2006 with a pair of out-of-state developers: Coventry Real Estate Advisors and Developers Diversified Realty.

They purchased the property in 2004 for $37 million, but were unable to move forward with plans once the Great Recession hit. The city's agreement with them expires in March 2016.

The new extension reassigns the rights to CenterCal for five years, and includes an option to extend the agreement for another two years.

If CenterCal completes at least 250,000 square feet of retail and 600,000 total square feet of development, the city will kick in $15 million worth of site improvements. Those would include upgrades to 120th Avenue Northeast, a public plaza and financial partnership in the parking garage.

Redevelopment is expected to occur in phases over several years.

CenterCal CEO Fred Bruning was unavailable yesterday to comment.

Kirkland Planning Director Eric Shields said the developer is interviewing architects and hopes to begin construction next year.

CenterCal is proposing some changes to the 2006 agreement. The garage would be relocated adjacent to the EvergreenHealth campus and housing would go on the east side of the property.

The developer also wants to remove a six-story office building from the plan and scatter the office space among multiple buildings on upper stories.

Two parking structure sites would be replaced with a mixed-use building and a future development site.

An east-west boulevard planned at the upper mall would be replaced with a public plaza and several driveway locations would be changed.

The city said in February that the changes would not have any significant adverse environmental impacts.

The planning director also approved minor changes to the original Totem Lake Mall conceptual master plan that was approved by the city's design review board in 2005.

CenterCal develops and acquires retail properties throughout the Western U.S. Its properties include Valley Mall in Yakima County and The Trails shopping center in Silverdale.




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