After Totem Lake, a neighborhood that is experiencing a spree of significant growth, the next notable constellation of new commercial and residential development in Kirkland is occurring around NE 85th Street/Central Way. This corridor primarily consists of the city’s Downtown, which expands into the greater area known as Moss Bay, and the neighborhood of Rose Hill. Opening up the city’s zoning map, a nearly uninterrupted east-west band of mixed-use zoning can clearly be seen spanning the entirety of Kirkland. The clear disruptor in this corridor is I-405, a physical symbol of the city’s divisions in mobility and built environment.
The two main neighborhoods on this corridor demonstrate the dichotomy of fair walkability and auto-oriented development present throughout the city, and to the east and west of I-405 on NE 85th Street, these two vastly different environments play out.
Downtown Kirkland is moderately dense, walkable, and bustling with midrises, a central park, waterfront, public library, and amenities galore. Like other downtowns in the region, it’s very well served by transit. Meanwhile, Rose Hill is a low-density residential neighborhood with the vast roadway of NE 85th Street splitting it in half with parking lots, big box stores, car dealerships and services. Cars dominate, with only two infrequent bus routes serving the corridor.
But change is coming to this avenue. The Moss Bay neighborhood, which encompasses Downtown and runs south along the Lake Washington waterfront and northwest toward I-405, has recently seen a wave of medium density development complete with a fair amount more on the way. Meanwhile, Rose Hill is just seeing the completion of its first large mixed-use development.
The pending arrival of the Stride Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) North line, which will run 37 miles between Lynnwood and Burien, and accompanying car-centric redesign of the highway interchange at I-405 and NE 85th are also sending mixed messages about the nature new growth in Kirkland.
Let’s start out our examination of growth in the Downtown and Rose Hill areas of Kirkland with what development has recently come about and what is in store for the near future of this busy corridor.
Scale distinguishes between blue and yellow pins. Blue pins represent low-density projects, typically townhome projects between three and 20 units. Yellow pins represent significantly larger projects.
Downtown fills in
Of Kirkland’s neighborhoods Downtown is the least car-dependent. The pedestrian infrastructure is well-trodden, roadways are narrower, traffic calming is in place, and the Kirkland Transit Center is right in the middle of the urban core. Despite this, new and incoming apartment and office buildings are still proposing a concerning number of new parking spaces.
- 230 Market Street – Ziply Fiber Office
- A 40,000 square foot office building with a 3-level parking garage.
- This project is in early permitting.
- 140 Lake Street – Lake Street South Mixed-Use
- A 6-story, 140-unit apartment building with 5,065 square feet of new commercial space, preexisting office and retail uses, and 254 parking stalls.
- This project is under construction.
- 200 Central Way
- A 5-story, 20-unit apartment building with 23,265 square feet of office space, 3,100 square feet of retail space, and a 3-level below grade garage.
- This project is in early permitting.
- 312 Central Way – Bartell’s Mixed Use/Parque Kirkland Apartments
- A 5-story, 70-unit mixed-use building with 16,415 square feet of commercial space, and a 2-level below grade garage with 185 parking stalls.
- This project was completed in 2022.
In Downtown Kirkland, the flagship development continues to be the three phase Kirkland Urban project. Phase 1 was completed in 2019 with three mid-rises, Kirkland Urban A, E, and F, as the core structures. Kirkland Urban A is a 7-story 185-unit mixed-use building with 20,965 square feet of commercial space. Kirkland Urban E is a 7-story, 232,158 square foot office building with ground floor retail. Kirkland Urban F is an 8-story mixed commercial midrise with 181,459 square feet of office space and 77,209 square feet of retail space, including a grocery store. These three buildings share a massive 4-level below grade parking structure with 1,694 parking stalls.
Phase 2 of Kirkland Urban at 200 Peter Kirk Lane is an under construction 7-story office building with 266,054 square feet of office space, 4,274 square feet of retail space, a 47,966 square foot theater, and 764 parking stalls in a 3-level parking garage and on the surface. Phase 3 of Kirkland Urban at 550 Uptown Court is in permitting, around design review. It is currently being planned to be a 6-story office building with 185,000 square feet of office space, 15,000 square feet of retail space, and a 4-level below grade parking garage for 300 parking stalls (from a 2/7/2022 design review response packet).
- 330 4th Street – Plaza
- A 5-story, 111-unit mixed-use building with 2,450 square feet of commercial space and 1-level below grade garage for 67 parking stalls.
- This project completed in 2019.
- 410 Kirkland Way – Boardwalk Kirkland
- A 9-level mixed-use building with 5 stories of residential with 171 units over a 4-level concrete base with 19,842 square feet of retail space and 311 parking stalls.
- This project completed in 2020.
- 672 7th Avenue
- A 3-story, 101,048 square feet self-storage facility with a parking garage.
- This project is in permitting.
An Everest detour
In between Downtown and Rose Hill, there are two neighborhoods whose borders act as a buffer. Everest, one of those two neighborhoods, has a band of commercial zoning that has been very active with significant development projects both being completed recently and advancing in the pipeline.
Just across the Cross Kirkland Connector from Downtown, these projects are well within the scope of this development roundup’s focus. How growth plays out in Everest and Highlands, the other buffer neighborhood, will be critical to the NE 85th Street/Central Way corridor’s future.
- 509 6th Street S – SRMKCCA Office Building
- A 2-story, 136,678 square foot office building with a 2-level below grade parking garage for 485 parking stalls.
- This project completed in 2021.
- 620 5th Avenue S – 6th Street Office
- A 3-story, 49,742 square foot office building with a 2-level below grade parking garage for 172 parking stalls.
- This project is under construction.
- 299 8th Street S – Railway Office Building
- A 2-story, 28,000 square foot office building with a 2-level parking garage.
- This project is in permitting.
- 301 8th Street S – Zylstra Office Building
- A 3-story, 34,731 square foot office building with a 2-level parking garage.
- This project is in permitting.
- 223 10th Street S – 233 Office Building
- A 3-story, 12,800 square foot office building with a below grade parking garage for 33 parking stalls.
- This project completed in 2021.
Rose Hill warms up
Development in Rose Hill is scant at the moment. However, sharing Totem Lake’s large parcel sizes, Rose Hill is seeing some of the largest projects on the corridor. Partially complete, Bloom Apartments at 8505 132nd Avenue NE is a 3-story, 135-unit apartment building with 7,282 square feet of commercial space, and a one-level below grade parking garage with 197 parking stalls.
Additionally, the single largest residential development in the works in Kirkland is also planned here: the Madison Rose Hill Mixed Use project whose building permits are in the process of being reviewed (the step before construction) at 12040 NE 85th Street. This project will include four 6-story buildings that altogether will contain 870 units, 84,000 square feet of commercial space, and a 2-level parking garage.
Possibly stalled by the pandemic, another significant development, Crescent Lighting Rosehill located at 12631 NE 85th Street, is planned as a three building apartment complex offering 275 units and 14,000 square feet of commercial space. No major activity, however, seems to have been made since 2019 for this project.
A steep density drop off
Beyond the zoning that allows for all of these mid-rise developments, the zoned capacity of the area quickly tapers off. Most notably, Downtown’s quarter mile band of medium density quickly transitions to townhouse density. The proximity to Downtown’s amenities and services has led to a notable production and permitting of these low-density housing types in the neighborhood.
Another 106 units, built since 2019, in permitting, or under construction, can be found in small townhouse and condominium projects by the mid-rises. Notable projects include Mirra Townhomes at 203 1 Avenue S, The Walk III at 431 7th Avenue S, and the Kirkland 12 Condos at 214 4th Avenue. These lower density projects had 22, 17, and 12 units, respectively. They do come with parking ratios averaging two parking stalls per unit, so around 212 parking stalls is planned to accompany all of this development.
A commercial development boom
Altogether, the NE 85th Street/Central Way corridor is seeing the bulk of the commercial development in Kirkland. Roughly 700,000 square feet of commercial development has been completed since 2019, including projects under construction and in permitting this figure shoots up to 1.6 million square feet.
Office space dominates in this category. Housing development is somewhat low here, with around 580 units completed in 2019. If everything under construction and in permitting comes to fruition, the number of new and incoming units rises to over 2,000. Kirkland’s inclusionary housing policy, which incentives the creation of affordable housing, has, and will, generate around 58 and 200 affordable units from these figures. Approximately, 2860 parking stalls have come alongside all the development here since 2019 and that number shoots up to 6,000 if what’s on the horizon is included. (Note, this figure incorporates some educated guesses for projects that have yet to disclose parking figures.)
Along this corridor, Downtown is taking on most of the development. However, development may be distributed more evenly in a few years with formal adoption of the NE 85th Street Station Area Plans in the land use code. This past June, the City adopted Phase 1 for the plans that outlined new height limits for the area of the corridor by the planned bus rapid transit station. Developers may be waiting for these changes to be implemented before truly transforming Rose Hill and the border of Everest and Highlands, as high-rise and broad mid-rise zoning is on its way.
Still the zoning is remains rather low density when it comes to proximity to the main arterial. A quarter-mile band of medium density is poor utilization of the corridor’s many transportation options and amenities. Hopefully, these density concerns and high requirements for minimum amounts of parking will be addressed during the bus rapid transit station area and city comprehensive planning processes.
Shaun Kuo is a junior editor at The Urbanist and a recent graduate from the UW Tacoma Master of Arts in Community Planning. He is a urban planner at the Puget Sound Regional Council and a Seattle native that has lived in Wallingford, Northgate, and Lake Forest Park. He enjoys exploring the city by bus and foot.