Two businesses will be leaving the Marketplace at Factoria in coming weeks, with a third possibly leaving early next year.
The first to close will be Goldbergs’ Famous Delicatessen, located in the mall. The restaurant is a lounge and deli counter which offers East Coast and traditional Jewish deli specialties. The store opened in Bellevue in 2005. A manager at the deli said it would be closing on Oct. 12 and did not give a reason for the closure.
The next business to leave will be Safeway, which will be shutting down on Nov. 10. Employees had been instructed not to talk about the closure, and a call to Safeway’s regional office was not returned by the time the Reporter went to press on Wednesday. The store’s manager did not say whether the employees would be transferred to other stores.
The Novilhos Brazilian Steakhouse also will be closing sometime early next year, said general manager Diego Zaroski, who plans to reopen the restaurant once it relocates. Zaroski said he read about plans to renovate the Factoria mall in the Reporter last year and began talking with KimCo Realty, the mall’s owners, about next steps. The steakhouse could potentially be moved to another location onsite.
“They’re fair. I don’t think they’re doing anything wrong and everything is negotiable,” Zaroski said. “They gave us quite a few options.”
Novilhos has been in Bellevue since 2010 after it moved from Seattle’s South Lake Union as the neighborhood was being redeveloped at the beginning of the region’s tech boom.
The BrightNow! dental clinic, which occupied a building next to the Novilhos location, caught fire last April, causing an estimated $500,000 in damages. As of Wednesday, the building was still boarded up and fenced off.
KimCo submitted a proposal to redevelop the mall and create hundreds of units of housing last April. The plan would create 685 housing units and add 150,000 square feet to the 526,000 square foot mall that currently occupies the 43-acre site.
The first phase of development includes a seven-story, 331-unit apartment complex in the northwest corner of the mall where Novilhos Brazilian Steakhouse and the former dental clinic are. Both buildings will need to be demolished as part of the redevelopment. If approved, construction would begin in the spring of 2019.
About 500 people are expected to live in the 331 apartments, which could generate an estimated 100 additional weekday peak hour trips. If the full 685 apartments are constructed, the number of trips would double.
The project includes a new hotel, new retail stores and an open-air shopping connection through the existing mall.
The Novilhos Brazilian Steakhouse will be closing early next year. The restaurant’s owner has not decided whether he wants to move to another location at the Marketplace at Factoria or head elsewhere. Aaron Kunkler/staff photo
The Safeway at the Marketplace at Factoria will be shutting down on Nov. 10 and is having a liquidation sale until it closes. It is unknown why the are closing. Aaron Kunkler/staff photo
