Council approves Town Center plan

Phase III of Mill Creek Town Center is a go.

The City Council unanimously approved three ordinances on Tuesday, Jan. 25 that will allow construction on the development to begin in mid-February.

By 5-0 margins, Council approved two ordinances that allow for one-time exemptions to Town Center guidelines to allow a five-story retail/apartment building to be built in phase III. Council also approved the overall site plan by the same margin. Mayor Terry Ryan and Mary Kay Voss did not attend Tuesday’s meeting.

Phase III is a 6.6-acre site west of Main Street and south of 153rd Street SE. It is bordered on the west by the North Creek green belt.

The development by Bellevue-based Wakefield Pacific includes seven buildings and a 159-stall, two-story parking garage. The buildings, which total 121,424 square feet, will have various uses and have differing heights. Six of the seven buildings front on Main Street, and of those six, five of them will be one story.

The tallest building is the five-story retail/apartment building. It will be 60 feet tall, 10 feet taller than regular Town Center design guidelines. When completed in March 2006, it will have street-level retail with the top four floors consisting of 48 one- and two-bedroom apartments. It will be at the back of the development, facing the North Creek green belt.

“It’s gonna be nice to look at Town Center and not see all flat roofs,” Mayor pro-tem Donna Michelson said.

Steve Malsam of Wakefield Pacific said construction on the development will begin by Feb. 15, with the goal of opening all the Main Street offices, stores and restaurants by late fall.

“Our financing is in place and we’re ready to go,” Malsam said.

In addition to the parking garage, the development will feature 221 street-level parking spaces.

Malsam said the development will feature a restaurant and several retail outlets. Tenants, however, have not been announced publicly because negotiations are ongoing.