Like the airport, Port of Everett area is ready to take off

EVERETT — The owners of Everett Bayside Marine are looking forward to the opening of a 266-unit apartment on the Everett waterfront.

It will bring housing to the waterfront for the first time and add several hundred residents — many of whom “are going to want a boat,” said Jeff LaLone, who owns Bayside Marine with Dan Hatch.

Bayside, which sells used boats and provides dry dock storage, is banking on the port’s continued expansion in 2021.

The 34-year-old business plans to enlarge its indoor storage facility, raising dry-stack storage capacity from 154 boats to 204, LaLone said.

Boats up to 32 feet are stacked and stored in the heated facility. When owners wants to go for a spin, “they call an hour or two ahead of time and we have it in the water when they arrive,” LaLone said.

A string of high-profile projects cut the ribbon in 2019 and opened their doors. Now those big projects — some completed, some under way — are fueling further development or inspiring existing businesses, like Bayside, to expand.

It’s an impressive list:

■ Commercial airline service began at Paine Field’s new two-gate passenger terminal in March.

■ Hotel Indigo, the first completed private development at the Port of Everett’s Waterfront Place district, welcomed its first guests last summer. It’s generated about 50 jobs so far, and that’s expected to rise to 70 during the summer.

■ A block east of the hotel, heavy-equipment crews are readying a 5-acre site for construction of the 266-unit Waterfront Place Apartments.

■ In Lynnwood, the city’s planned light-rail station has become a focal point for private developers. One plan would construct 1,370 housing units and 750,000 square feet of office and retail space near 196th Street SW, just blocks from I-5 and the planned Sound Transit Link station.

Bayside has waited more than a decade for the port to pop.

In the early 2000s, “we had stars in our eyes,” LaLone said. “There was supposed to be a city springing up with 660 waterfront condos at the port.” By 2010 the project was officially scuttled after its sponsor, Maritime Trust, filed for bankruptcy.

In 2018, SeaLevel Properties, a division of Mercer Island-based American Classic homes, purchased the property at 1300 West Marine View Drive and announced plans to build.

“It was a great month when we saw the groundbreaking for the (Waterfront Place) apartments,” LaLone said.

SeaLevel is partnering with Calgary-based development firm Gracorp to complete the two-building complex in spring and summer 2021.

“We always felt that this was going to happen — it just kind of chugged along slower than we thought,” LaLone said.

The apartments clinched the deal on Bayside’s decision to boost dry-stack storage capacity.

The service is especially prized by apartment dwellers with limited parking space, LaLone said.

“They don’t have to have a truck or trailer or a slip at the marina,” he said.

LaLone expects the added capacity will allow mechanics to draw a full-time paycheck during the off season instead of working reduced hours. And more boat sales could equal more new hires.

Port officials are working with Leibsohn & Co., a Bellevue real estate firm, to identify potential tenants for six retail buildings and an office building the port plans to build over the next few years, as demand dictates. The port plans to begin construction of an office building near Pacific Rim Plaza this year.

“Retail follows rooftops,” said Terrie Battuello, the port’s chief of business development. With Waterfront Place Apartments expected to house more than 500 people, residents will need nearby restaurants, a grocery store and other shops within walking distance, Battuello said.

Liftoff

On March 4, the first Alaska Airlines commercial passenger flight took off from Paine Field’s new two-gate passenger terminal, built and now operated by privately held Propeller Airports.

At the end of March, United Airlines followed suit with daily round trips to hubs in San Francisco and Denver.

The two carriers quickly reached the Paine Field limit of 24 daily departures and 24 arrivals set by federal regulators.

It took decades for Snohomish County officials to approve commercial airline service at Paine Field and it was a lengthy process for the airlines and terminal to obtain federal approval. But once the wheels left the ground, new development came calling.

A month after the start of airline service, in mid-April, Everett city officials saw a proposal for construction of two Marriott-brand hotels on Airport Road near the new passenger terminal.

SMJ Management, which manages hotels in the Everett area and Burlington, presented plans to build a 128-room SpringHill Suites and a 74-unit TownPlace Suites in the 11400 block of Airport Road, on the east side near 112th Street SW, sometime in 2021. Parking for 208 vehicles is planned.

The hotels will be side by side, share a front desk and offer a coveted perk — park-and-fly privileges for guests: Spend a night at the hotel and you can leave your car in the parking lot and take the shuttle to the airport.

“Now we’re working on a final interior design to submit to Marriott International for approval,” Pyung Woo Lee, the firm’s project and finance manager, told The Daily Herald.

The firm hopes to break ground on the project this winter and roll out the red carpet in 12 to 18 months. “We’ve submitted a land use permit to the City of Everett,” Lee said.

In Lynnwood, officials are preparing for the emergence of a new downtown core centered around the arrival of light rail.

Last month, the Lynnwood City Council voted in favor of a 15-year development agreement for Northline Village, a project that would reshape the present Lynnwood Square block with 1,370 housing units, seven-story office buildings, 170,000 square feet of retail space and 4,700 parking spots — all within walking distance of the light rail station.

Northline Village is one of many projects expected to benefit from light rail, which is set to open in 2024.

Farther north, Web Industries, a Boston-based aerospace company that specializes in carbon fiber, broke ground in October on a new manufacturing plant at Cascade Industrial Center. The 4,000-acre center is on the borders of Marysville and Arlington. Web’s products are used in the production of Boeing’s 787 and the wings of the 777X. It’s expected to bring more than 70 jobs to the region.

Janice Podsada; jpodsada@heraldnet.com; 425-339-3097; Twitter: JanicePods