July 1, 2020

Woodinville wine-themed hotel site sells for $8M, construction next

Rendering by Jensen Design Architects [enlarge]

The four-story hotel is the first phase of a development that will include retail and commercial buildings and at least 400 residential units.

The site for a future hotel and spa, at 14485 Redmond-Woodinville Road N.E., has sold for a little under $7.6 million, according to King County records.

The seller was Wood Mountain LLC, which acquired the property for about $32 million during 2018-2019 as part of a larger assemblage.

Wood Mountain and Windward Real Estate Services have been planning the roughly 20-acre Farmstead, a wine-themed mixed-use development also to have retail and residential components.

As the DJC reported last summer, the sale of the Vines Hotel & Spa site was anticipated. It'll be Phase I of Farmstead (that's the new moniker for what was once called Woodinville Wine Village), on the east of the Sammamish River.

The buyer was Woodinville Hotel Partners LLC, which is associated with Vector Development and family owners of Halvorson Construction — which may or may not build the hotel.

The deal was worth about $61 per square foot for the land.

Vector's Tyler Litzenberger says the four-story hotel will be designed by Jensen Design Architects (no longer Jensen Fey Architects). It'll have 165 rooms and an 8,000-square-foot hall to accommodate up to 400 people for weddings, conferences and events.

Local firm Columbia Hospitality will be the Vines operator, and the hotel will be affiliated with — but not flagged as — the Marriott Autograph Collection. The hotel will have two levels of parking with full valet service. The entire Farmstead project will have about 1,200 stalls, almost all of them below grade.

“We are fully entitled,” says Litzenberger of the Vines. The city of Woodinville previously approved the Farmstead master plan (much of that work was done under prior ownership). After building permits and final financing are secured, says Litzenberger, “we're pushing to start construction in nine to 12 months. We have yet to choose our contractor.” He expects construction to take about 18 months.

The hotel will also have a rooftop bar and a restaurant, whose chef and theme have yet to be determined — though it'll surely be very wine-centric. Bob Burke of Ovation Consulting is an adviser on that front.

Separately, CBRE's Blake Bishop and Tim Owens are leasing the several retail and commercial buildings planned in The Yard, likely to be Phase II of Farmstead. Also from CBRE, Heather Almond and Andrea Lachmann are the retail managers.

Phase III will be The Village, with 400-plus apartments and condominiums. Wood Mountain still owns both of those Farmstead components, to be designed by Backen & Gillam Architects of St. Helena, California.

And the entire project recently launched its marketing website, farmsteadwoodinville.com.