On Tuesday, King County Executive Girmay Zahilay joined other dignitaries in a ribbon-cutting ceremony for 235 low-income apartments next door to Northgate's light rail station. The seven-story building replaces a nearly one-acre corner of King County Metro's former park and ride lot, with the County long teasing plans to convert the remaining five acres of the site to even more housing.
However, officials confirmed this week that Phase 2 of the project remains in planning limbo – already a decade-long journey for the site. That means the remaining Metro land will remain a station-adjacent parking lot next to Sound Transit's 443-stall parking garage and Northgate Mall's 730-stall garage, rather than upwards of 1,000 homes currently feasible under existing zoning.
Community Roots Housing and San Francisco-based BRIDGE Housing jointly developed the newly opened project, which has been christened Copperleaf Northgate. King County contributed public land and $30 million in transit-oriented development funding, an amount that made it largest single contribution that the County had ever awarded to an affordable housing project.
“Copperleaf Northgate marks an important contribution to the enhancement of the Northgate neighborhood and the quality of life for hundreds of people,” said Colleen Echohawk, CEO of Community Roots Housing, in a statement after the ribbon-cutting. “It is our largest community to date, and its location next to the Northgate transit center makes it a true transit-oriented development — expanding access to jobs, schools, and services for so many residents while meaningfully advancing our mission to create inclusive housing and foster thriving, just communities.”
Echohawk stressed that Northgate would provide an important place of connection and belonging to the 235 families who will live there.
"Copperleaf is a place of connection," Echohawk said at the ribbon cutting. "I live in this neighborhood. I remember what it looked like before this building was here. Before the light rail station was here, the parking lot that was just full of cars and busses coming and going. But now folks who live in this building are connected to Bellevue, they're connected to downtown, they're connected to security, they're connected to jobs. And the people that live in this building are also economic drivers for this neighborhood. Our affordable housing community are an asset to every place that they come to."
Zahilay echoed a similar sentiment, and brought up his own personal connection to the Northgate neighborhood.
"This used to be a parking lot. It also used to be a place where I used to come and buy Jordans and all kinds of other stuff at Northgate Mall. And today it is 235 homes with much needed services. Today it is community. Today, it is opportunity. Most of these apartments are going to be affordable to households up to 60% of area median income. These apartments are going to help people stay in this region as we deal with the biggest crisis in our nation right now, which is the cost of living. You are helping people stay rooted right here in King County. This is the kind of stability that is a lifeline for so many people. And that's why I'm proud to share that this is the largest single investment in affordable housing that King County has ever made: $30 million in transit oriented development funding, along with donation of King County owned land that helped made these homes possible."
The ceremony's speaking program included Grecia Guzman Carranza, a 40-year-old former childcare worker who lives at Copperleaf with her husband and two teenaged sons. She said her family went from housing-insecure, sporadic transit users to daily light rail riders, making it much easier for her family to get around.
“My family and I struggled for years to find a stable place to call home. Copperleaf Northgate is the answer we were looking for,” Guzman Carranza said. “This community is safe and peaceful. My kids are sleeping better, with more energy for school. Copperleaf Northgate has made a huge difference for all of us.”
Copperleaf has 211 apartments, ranging from studios to three-bedrooms, reserved for tenants earning up to 60% of area median income (AMI) and an additional 24 systems-connected apartment units are reserved for 30% to 50% AMI households who have experienced housing instability or homelessness. Wellspring Family Services will provide support services to all Copperleaf residents at no cost, the County noted. A ground-floor daycare center and adjacent commercial space are also slated to open in late 2026.
Community Roots Housing is providing all residents over 18 years old with free transit passes for light rail, bus, and ferry service for up to three years. Residents 18 and under already qualify for free transit via a state-funded program.
Via a 75-year, $1 per-year lease, Metro provided about one acre of land valued at $12.85 million, which was previously approximately 185 park and ride spaces. Since more people will fit in the new building, the agency is almost assuredly coming out ahead in terms of the number of riders drawn to the transit center, which also hosts nine bus routes.
Metro's Phase 2 plans for more affordable housing
The county has more acres at the park and ride that could be donated to further affordable homebuilding efforts, but Metro spokesperson Jeff Switzer confirmed the timeline for that project is still in development. Switzer hailed the people moving into the new building as a "huge milestone."
The ribbon cutting press release added only that "Metro is preparing to seek development on its remaining five acres of nearby Northgate property in the coming years."
In 2017, Metro unveiled a broader development plan, floating the idea of including 24-story residential towers next door to the station, maxing out the site's zoning allowances, via Phase 2 of the project. More recently, the Seattle Office of Planning and Community Development (OPCD) is working on an update to the Northgate Regional Center Plan, which could potentially result in further upzones across the site.
Phase 2 never got off the ground, with Phase 1 also running into considerable obstacles after repeated false starts on the project.
The County's first Request for Proposals (RFP) on the site went out in 2017, but ultimately Metro decided to run a second RFP process after not being satisfied with the two submissions it received. Stellar Holdings, one of two original bidders, won the second RFP process in 2019, but talks to finalize that deal broke down in 2020, and Metro pivoted to working with nonprofit developers on a smaller portion of the site. In 2021, the King County Council approved a development agreement that cleared the way for Tuesday's ribbon-cutting.
In 2018, Seattle Councilmember Debora Juarez (District 5) famously quipped: “I’m disappointed that Northgate may become the textbook example of how not to do transit-oriented development. I thought we were going to be the shining example of how to do it.”
Northgate's slow transformation inches along
That's not to say that Northgate has not see considerable redevelopment. In 2021, The Urbanist reported Northgate's development pipeline included more than 4,000 homes. Many of those projects have come to fruition, but the majority are farther east in and around the 5th Avenue NE corridor, rather than close to the station where most of the land is owned by Northgate Mall owner Simon Property Group or King County Metro.
Despite a rather glacial pace to begin the urban transformation of its sprawling mall campus, Simon is finally moving forward with a seven-story building with 268 apartments and more than 25,000 square feet of retail. The third phase of development of the full campus, the project heads to a design recommendation meeting on April 27.
Doug Trumm
Amy Sundberg
