By Meghan Hall
The sale of Kirkland’s 40-year-old Rose Hill Shopping Center has long been anticipated—and has only recently been completed. The 41-year-old retail center is located near downtown Kirkland across from Costco, and, according to its new owners, has not been updated or traded in decades. Now, MG2, a local architecture firm, and Madison Development Group have closed on the center. The property sold for an even $40 million on December 20th, and the developers have plans for more than 800 residential units on the property.
The seller of the site was Rose Hill Shopping Center LLC, an entity associated with Gayle Guyniup of Santa Rosa, Calif. The transaction did not include the corner property located at 12000 NE 85th Street, currently home to U-Haul Trailer Rentals.
Madison Development and MG2 are planning on demolishing the shopping center to make way for about 775 housing units on the site, according to preliminary design documents. The residential spaces would be spread across four buildings. Building A would be the largest and 242,500 square feet of residential, with Building D following next in size, with 186,300 square feet of residential. Buildings B and C would be 124,800 and 105,100 square feet of residential, respectively.
The project would also include almost 100,000 square feet ground-floor retail as well as parking for more than 1,000 vehicles. Plans denote that the existing Costco parking lot, also included in the transaction, would remain. In all, the total project size for the 7-acre property would be about 1.3 million square feet.
Seattle-based Madison Development Group also has numerous other projects—either completed, in planning, or under construction—throughout the Puget Sound. The firm owns the Bellingham Retail Center in Bellingham, as well as numerous multifamily properties. In January of last year, Madison Development broke ground on Luna, a new mixed-use building on California Ave. SW which features 108 units. Other completed projects include Element 42 and Spruce in West Seattle, 229 Queen Anne and Summit at Madison Park.
