News
KIRKLAND: THE NEW OFFICE HAVEN?
April 19, 2012
| It's strange to give a talk of lessons learned on a project that hasn't been built yet. Touchstone Development VP A-P Hurd recognizes that. But after four years of planning, more than 60 public meetings and one lawsuit regarding Touchstone's mammoth redevelopment of Kirkland Parkplace, A-P was more than prepared to spend 30 minutes talking about what she's learned at CREW's monthly luncheon at the Washington Athletic Club. |
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| Here's A-P with CREW president Stacy Amrine of CBRE. When complete, the Parkplace project will have literally changed the face of downtown Kirkland. After acquiring the land in 2007, the developer successfully lobbied the city for a zoning change that permits eight-story office buildings except along Central Way. In all, the project will have about 1.2M SF office space with an additional 300k SF retail, a hotel, and underground parking. |
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| With a lawsuit filed by Davidson Serles & Associates/Continental Plaza Corp in the rearview mirror, Touchstone is now "super engaged" in marketing to prospective tech tenants. What are they looking for? Floorplates in the neighborhood of 30k to 60k SF, for one thing, A-P says. A place for their employees to go for happy hour and meet new people, for another. "Companies are seeing it as less important to be behind the walls of a private campus and more important to be in an urban environment around other companies, because that's where creative ideas are born," she says. |
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| We dearly hope this rendering means we won't have to drive to Vancouver anymore for our Zara fix. The process hasn't been all tech love and happy hours, however: "With a significant land-use change comes a lot of fear," A-P says. "It can be challenging to do unique architecture when people have to love it all the way along, through four years of public meetings." Fun fact about A-P: She moonlights teaching the economics of sustainable development at the University of Washington. Her new book, The Carbon Efficient City, is being published this month by the University of Washington Press. |
