The redevelopment the Lake Hills Shopping Center is good news, not only for that community, but also the city as a whole.
It will be a needed improvement to one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods.
Officials broke ground last week on the project that has been 10 years in the planning. It will take at least two years to complete the work. When it’s finished, the neighborhood will have a new and larger library, a core of retail shops and stores and residential units along two of the sides.
Best of all, it will be new.
The center, as it is now, largely has been ignored or abandoned. A QFC grocery moved out several years ago and relocated several blocks west. The neighborhood hardware store is long gone. More asphalt than shops seem to fill the center, which is at the corner of Lake Hills Boulevard and 156th Avenue Southeast.
What is remarkable is that this project is going ahead at all, given the recession that has sent an economic shudder through the country. While Bellevue appears to be doing better than many areas, sales here still are off and people are making do rather than adding on.
The revitalized center will encompass 69,200 square feet of retail space, approximately 44,800 square feet of office space and 90 residential units on the 6.7-acre site. The existing five buildings will become 14 new ones once the project is done. Roughly 600 parking spaces also will be made available. Phase One is slated to be complete in spring of 2010. If tenant relocation goes smoothly, phase two of the project is estimated to be finished in late summer of 2011.
At the groundbreaking, confidence certainly was in the air.
“This project is something we believe in and have worked hard to get to where we are,” said Oscar Del Moro, the senior vice president for Cosmos Development and Administration. “Even when the bad economy hit we stayed committed along with the library, the neighborhood, and the city. This is a special project and I’m glad to be a part of it.”
With this project under way, the city should turn its attention to Newport Hills and Kelsey Creek.
The former shopping center recently lost its Red Apple market and a Hallmark and pharmacy. It, too, needs a redevelopment boost to keep needed amenities handy to nearby neighbors.
A more daunting task will be doing something to the former Kmart property at Main Street and 148th Avenue Southeast.
Bellevue inherited this scar on the residential landscape years ago from King County. How to turn the site into an attractive and useful facility has been an ongoing problem.
However, Lake Hills gives us hope. Bellevue certainly has the vision and commitment to preserve and improve its neighborhoods. What’s needed now are developers with an equal resolve to make it happen.
