The Grand Avenue Marketplace—a first-of-its-kind development in Everett, Washington, that’s described as an up-and-coming culinary hotspot for the community’s foodies—is finally back on track, now that prior delays that impacted the development have been resolved.
In August, EB5 Group LLC took ownership of the Grand Avenue Marketplace and its apartments from the receivership company known as The Grassmueck Group.
EB5 Group LLC has retained The Carlin Company, which is acting as development manager for the retail ground floor and is responsible for planning, implementation and overseeing the marketplace’s operations. The Napa, Calif.-based firm’s owner, Steve Carlin, is a retail marketplace developer and specialty food consultant.
The 40,000-square-foot indoor marketplace, located about 30 miles north of downtown Seattle, will feature many creative food concepts and restaurants under one roof. The Carlin Company created the vision behind the project and is managing the marketplace, which is located on the ground floor of the Potala Place Everett residential apartment tower at 2900 Grand Ave. in downtown Everett.
The 220-apartment Potala Place Everett tower opened in 2015 and has a 95 percent occupancy rate, the Carlin firm said.
The 7,000-square-foot Farms & Market, an upscale, farm-based kitchen restaurant and grocery will anchor the Grand Avenue Marketplace, which is also expected to attract a variety of local artisan producers, growers and restaurants as tenants.
East Coast-based Synergy Construction started construction on Farms & Market in September, and the store is expected to open by early 2018, a statement from The Carlin Company said.
So far, one marketplace tenant—baked goods, sandwich and rustic bread-maker Choux Choux Bakery—has opened in the upcoming food hall. “It has been open for almost a year, and the community seems to be embracing it, and they are doing well,” said Lloyd Lewelyn, chief operating officer and general council for the Carlin Company, in an interview earlier this year.
During the past 10 years, Steve Carlin has been directly involved in three projects that are well-known to Bay Area foodies: the Oxbow Public Market in Napa, Napa Farms Market at San Francisco International Airport and the Ferry Building Marketplace in San Francisco. The 100,000 square foot Ferry Building Marketplace draws about 5 million visitors annually to its 40 vendors, restaurants and three-day-per-week farmers’ market.
Steve Carlin’s background also includes two decades as managing partner of the Oakville Grocery, a leading Northern California specialty foods retailer.
The indoor market hall in Everett will feature both established, top-notch chefs as well as emerging cuisiniers who are on the rise. Leases for other ground floor retail spots are being negotiated, said Steve Carlin in a statement last week. A Carlin spokesperson also added that other artisan regional food producers are sought for the complex and could include assorted food service vendors including a butcher, a fish market, a cheese monger, and wine, beer and coffee sellers.
In an interview with The Registry earlier this year, Everett Economic Development Director Lanie McMullin called the Grand Avenue Marketplace “a cross between offering fresh local produce, value-added products that are also local, prepared food from those local products and a place to sit and dine and have a glass of wine and partake. If anything, this will be a catalyst for creative food endeavors around what [Steve Carlin] is doing. We look forward to seeing what follows.”
BCV Architects was the design architecture firm for the upcoming marketplace, while the architect of record for the retail portion of the development is Architecture 2812.
The original developer of the $30 million, six story tall Potala Place Everett residential tower and its Grand Avenue Marketplace was Lobsang Dargey.
After being accused of fraud in 2015 by Securities and Exchange Commission, Dargey lost control of the project.
