By Jack Stubbs
There are several projects shaping the city of Woodinville including MainStreet Property Group’s planned transformation of the historic schoolhouse near the Town Center. And the city roughly twenty miles northeast of Seattle continues to be targeted as an area for further investment and transaction activity.
On Wednesday, August 22nd, 13 parcels of vacant land in Woodinville sold for just under $16.2 million, according to public records filed with King County. The buyer was Windward Real Estate Services Inc., a full service real estate company based in Kirkland. The seller was Woodinville Village Partners LLC, an entity who shares the same address as Legacy Companies based in Bellevue. The transaction was recorded on September 6th.
The buyer declined to comment on the details of the recent transaction, and the seller did not respond to calls for comment in time for the publishing of this story.
The sale was for thirteen separate parcels that total 6.71 acres, according to public documents, including two industrial and residential buildings totaling just over 3,000 square feet.
One of the buildings—located at 14485 Woodinville-Redmond Rd.—is adjacent to where an approximately 24-acre master-plan development is in the works. Woodinville Wine Village, located at 14419-14421 Woodinville-Redmond Rd., is a 24.2-acre mixed-use village that could ultimately comprise over 750,000 square feet of residential, office, retail and wineries, according to MJR Development’s web site. Tiscareno and Associates is the master-plan architect on the project, which would add 20 buildings to the site. Woodinville Village will also include three mixed-use residential buildings designed by Weber Thompson.
“Woodinville Village is a unique wine themed mixed-use retail and commercial village located in one of Washington’s premier living and tourist destinations,” MJR Development’s web site states. There are a number of land-related issues that need to be resolved in order for the development to move forward. “The land that comprises Woodinville Village needed to be assembled, master planned and rezoned to support this mixed-use village concept. In addition, environmental approvals needed to be obtained and traffic improvements needed to be designed and implemented,” the web site states. “The work on this site was tricky, due to the proximity to the Sammamish River and the many constraints of the site’s location.”
According to Brandon Buchanan, city manager with the city of Woodinville, the new owner of the site is currently collaborating with the city to work through the entitlement process for the mixed-use development. “The new owner is working through the entitlement process for what long has been envisioned for that property,” Buchanan said. The development will be a “wine-based commercial development” along with some residential components, according to Buchanan.
The 13-parcel property is located in the Woodinville tourist district approximately 2.5 miles south of downtown Woodinville and the Woodinville Town Center. The property is roughly four miles northeast of Totem Lake and about five miles from access to Interstate-405.
Windward Real Estate specializes in difficult transactions and sites that are difficult to develop and build, according to its web site. The company has developed three master-planned communities in the Pacific Northwest that total over 5,000 units and has developed multiple large- and small-scale projects including several in-fill sites. Windward Real Estate works with pension funds, hedge funds, private equity groups and landlords and handles a number of issues including entitlement, permitting, contract negotiations, project reports, fund management, development and construction, according to the company’s web site.
Legacy Companies, which is comprised of Legacy Capital and Legacy Commercial, operates thirteen properties throughout the Puget Sound region in Bellevue, Redmond and Seattle, according to the company’s web site. Some of the company’s projects in the region include the Design Market shopping mall in Bellevue, the Redmond Shopping Center and the Bellevue Factoria Warehouse.
Along with the Woodinville Wine Village development, there is another project just west of the city’s Town Center that is set to change the fabric of the city in the coming months. The city of Woodinville is working with developers MainStreet Property Group and HAL Real Estate on the 3.3-acre Civic Campus School Restoration Project located at 13203 NE 175th St. The development, on which construction is expected to begin in May 2019, will look to preserve the historic Woodinville schoolhouse and also calls for 20,000 square feet of proposed retail, commercial and restaurant space, between 260 and 275 multifamily residential units and more than 30,000 square feet of open space.
The Woodinville Town Center changed hands in recent months. On June 19th, the 86,510 square foot Town Center retail complex sold for $37.77 million, or approximately $436 per square foot, according to public records filed with King County. The buyer of the property was TMY Woodinville Towne Center LLC, an entity affiliated with Edward Morimoto based in Los Gatos, California. The seller was an entity associated with San Diego-based Tourmaline Capital.
