November 7, 2023

Eastgate offices to be razed for housing? A plan emerges

Photo via CBRE [enlarge]

The 4 acres are evidently now more valuable than the old building.

Once full of Verizon workers, an Eastgate office building at 3245 158th Ave. S.E. has been sitting vacant for some time now. CBRE has been seeking to fill the three-story building, on the north side of Interstate 90 in Bellevue, near the Michael's Toyota and Subaru dealerships.

Developed on nearly 4 acres in 1985, it offers 70,994 square feet, per the brokers, Riley and J.J. Shephard. As part of the leasing effort, it's been rebranded as Airfield at Eastgate — replacing the rather more mundane I-90 Bellevue I.

Last week there was a new plan filed for the property, but it has nothing to do with tenant improvements. Instead, prospective buyer Intracorp and Freiheit Architecture are proposing to demolish the building.

In its place would go 83 townhouses for the sales market. The development would have 15 low-rise buildings with structured parking for 166 vehicles.

The plan, which the city dubs Airport Townhomes, hasn't yet entered design review. It also includes 21 surface stalls for guests. KPFF is the civil engineer.

The property is bounded to the south by Southeast Eastgate Way, which runs parallel to the freeway. It last traded for about $12.7 million in 2007, when full of Verizon workers. They left at some point after 2019, per the parking lots on Google Street View. The owner, via an LLC, is Rainier Pacific Properties.

That area of Eastgate, extending west to the Park & Ride, is mostly office parks, car lots, fast food and extended-stay hotels. And yet, Intracorp may be joining a trend toward housing along that corridor.

Trammel Crow is planning a 390-unit apartment project on a vacant patch of the Sunset North office park. Urban Renaissance Group and Pacific Coast Capital Partners are contemplating a 300-unit addition to their Cascade Yard office park. And Inland Group is nearing completion on its 353-unit Polaris at Eastgate, next to the already completed Plymouth Crossing, with 92 units of supportive housing.