By Jon Peterson
The recent activity in commercial development across the Eastside has provided opportunities for owners to explore selling excess land parcels. Redmond-based Cadman Materials is one of these organizations, and the company has decided to place on the market for sale the 9.24-acre development site in Bellevue called Station 130, which is located at 1701 130th Avenue Northeast. The potential sales price on the land could be somewhere in the range of $120 million to $130 million, according to sources that are familiar with the property and aware that it’s up for sale.
For Cadman, this site represents excess land and an opportunity to recover some value since the company is looking to relocate its business to another location. The seller has selected the Seattle office of CBRE to be the listing agent on the sale. Those working on the transaction include Tom Pehl, executive vice president, and Ed Hanacek, vice-chairman. CBRE declined to comment when contacted for this story.
There will likely be two types of capital sources interested in the development opportunities offered through the sale of this project. One would likely be developers looking to build a new development on the site, while the other group may be comprised of companies interested in locating their operations there.
The site offers the opportunity to be turned into a significant mixed-use project. The current zoning allows nearly one million square feet to be constructed on the site in the future. The parcel would, however, need to be master-planned, since it is not entitled for new development at this time. Some likely uses that could be developed include office, residential, life science and hospitality properties.
The parcel has a very strong location from a mass transportation perspective. The site sits in close proximity to the East Link Light rail station at 130th Avenue Northeast, which is expected to be in operation as early as next year.
Both office and apartment uses would seem to be likely options for the project. Bellevue has reached 90 percent pre-leasing on the 5.3 million square feet of new projects under construction. The apartment market in the city is also very strong. The market has achieved 96 percent average occupancy over the past 10 years and has seen a 53 percent rental rate growth over the same time period.
