Northgate project, creek to spring up

It represented a new water channel that will bisect a major development south of the mall and rescue part of Thornton Creek now running in an underground pipe.

The innovative development project will include a 16-screen cinema, nearly 400 apartments and condominiums, 52,000 square feet of retail space, a retirement community and a landscaped drainage trench to slow storm water and filter pollution.

It is also expected to help convert an auto-centric shopping magnet into a more pedestrian-friendly neighborhood, with public art, walking paths and nearly 3 acres of green space around the new waterway.

locator map

"If somebody gave me a million dollars today, it wouldn't be any better than this," said Janet Way, a creek advocate involved in a seven-year battle to bring the headwaters of Thornton Creek back to the surface.

There was no hint Wednesday of the acrimony that sometimes surrounded that struggle, with hundreds of supporters showing up for a groundbreaking ceremony.

"This was a dismal symbol of stagnation and community frustration," said Mayor Greg Nickels, who proposed changes to help spark development there. "Now we've got a new era here at Northgate -- we're creating a vibrant, livable, walkable community ... where people can leave their cars behind."

The 6-acre project, called Thornton Place and developed by Lorig Associates, Stellar Holdings and ERA Care Communities, is the first of several residential projects planned for the area.

Bellevue-based Wallace Properties hopes to break ground on a mixed-use project across from the mall's northeast corner later this year. At least two other large-property owners are weighing redevelopment plans, city officials said.

Next month, a new library, community center and small park are scheduled to open.

The city, which spent $9.5 million to create the Thornton Creek water channel, is also working on transportation improvements along Fifth Avenue Northeast, and it recently bought a parking lot from King County for a larger park.

Residents credited City Councilman Richard Conlin for proposing a stakeholders committee that allowed various interests to hash out differences and gave community members more input.

The endless meetings and enforced collaboration -- hallmarks of the oft-maligned "Seattle way" -- in this case produced a much better result, many said.

"This is a community that had a vision ... to make a place for people that also works well as an ecosystem," Conlin said.

"We don't always know how to do it, and we had a lot of struggles ... but we know we have to keep experimenting," he added.

Bruce Lorig of Lorig Associates said it took three years to finalize the "extremely complicated" development plan, which also includes commitments by King County to build a new road and lease spaces in an underground parking garage.

But his company, whose projects include Uwajimaya Village and Wallingford Center, doesn't approach them with a cookie-cutter model, he said.

"There's no other piece of land like this," he said, referring to the expansive parking lot.

"It's a strategy of taking on difficult urban projects. When we can do that, they end up being better."

He said the waterway and lush green space will be wonderful amenities to sell to potential homeowners and renters.

Bruce Hubbard, 82, a lifelong Northgate resident, remembers chilling his homemade root beer in a now-paved-over natural spring north of the mall.

Efforts to rescue Thornton Creek give him hope that the ecosystem that so fascinated him as a child might be revived next.

"I have fond memories of feeding fish in the spring and cooling my wrists," he said. "Usually the status quo stays the status quo and doesn't change.

"To get to the point of opening up a running creek like that ... is really remarkable," Hubbard said.

ON THE WEB

For more information about the city's efforts to revitalize Northgate, visit:

www.seattle.gov/dpd/Planning/Northgate_Revitalization/Overview

More headlines and info from Northgate.

P-I reporter Jennifer Langston can be reached at 206-448-8130 or jenniferlangston@seattlepi.com.

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