MARYSVILLE – WinCo Foods and a Kohl’s department store will anchor an $18 million shopping center planned at 116th Street NE, developers said Tuesday.
Kite Realty Group Trust, a national real estate investment firm, announced expanded plans for the center, which will create more retail space than Marysville Town Center.
Kite has teamed with Gateway Shopping Center’s original developer, White-Leasure Development Co. of Boise, Idaho, for the project.
“It should be great for the area,” said Tom McGowan, chief operating officer of Kite, based in Indianapolis, Ind.
When completed, the 34-acre development will include 255,000 square feet of retail space – about 30,000 square feet larger than the town center complex at State Avenue and Fourth Street.
Two years ago, White-Leasure bought land on the north side of 116th Street NE near the intersection with State Avenue, which was then home to a few single-family houses and the Sands 55 Plus Mobile Home Park. Plans filed with the city at that time called for a shopping center anchored by WinCo on 13 acres.
| What: Chain of 48 large warehouse-style supermarkets
Number of employees: Approximately 8,000 Founded: 1968, formerly called Waremart Foods Web site: www. wincofoods.com |
Gloria Hirashima, Marysville’s community development director, said the plans have evolved since then. McGowan said Kite Realty was recruited by White-Leasure.
Now, in addition to a 93,000-square-foot WinCo Foods store, the shopping center will host an 88,000-square-foot Kohl’s. Another 30,000-square-foot space also is planned, though a tenant has not been named for that building. There also will be room for up to three other small retail buildings.
Additionally, on property near the WinCo store, there will be room for another 45,000 square feet of space for small shops, plus two other stand-alone businesses, according to the developers.
Construction could begin later this year, Hirashima said. The project’s site plan already has received city approval and needs only building and related permits. McGowan said, ideally, the entire shopping center will be built at once, though it could be divided into different phases.
Kite, which owns interests in more than 50 properties nationwide, was attracted by the shopping center’s location off I-5, Marysville’s fast growth and the population’s demographics, McGowan said.
“With the growth potential and the incomes there, it’s an attractive region,” he said.
Those factors haven’t gone unnoticed by other developers. Another major shopping center that would include a Costco Wholesale store has been proposed for the west side of I-5 near Smokey Point; a Wal-Mart-sized store is proposed for the corner of 64th Street NE and Highway 9; and other retail chains are eyeing existing sites along State Avenue.
After years of rapid residential growth in Marysville, it’s nice to see commercial development begin to catch up, Mayor Dennis Kendall said.
“Housing doesn’t pay the bills for the city,” he said. “The only way you can continue to provide the services we have is through more economic development and sales tax revenue.”
He added that he plans to ask the City Council to set aside a portion of the revenue received from construction of the new stores to help pay for capital improvements as the city continues growing.
If Marysville annexes all the acreage within its urban growth area in the years to come, the population could exceed 50,000, Kendall said. At that size, Marysville would overtake Edmonds as Snohomish County’s second-largest city.
Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com.
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