BACKGROUND

The 11.5 acre Kirkland Parkplace in the heart of downtown Kirkland is not meeting its full potential. It was built in 1982. Since then, much has changed in retail shopping design. Many Parkplace retailers have fled having found it to be a difficult place to be profitable. The site is difficult to enter and exit by car. It is adjacent to one of the City’s most valued assets, Peter Kirk Park, which is all but ignored (currently parking lots and brick walls face the park).

Touchstone Development purchased the property in 2007 with the goal of creating a new and vibrant mixed-use project - one that would serve the needs of the citizens of Kirkland and be an economically strong member of the community. In conjunction with the City of Kirkland, the redevelopment plan has emphasized the site’s special role in the community and its potential to add active open spaces for the public adjacent to Peter Kirk Park.

The preferred mixed-use plan for the project retains and enhances the amenities we have today at Parkplace (such as a QFC almost twice the size of the current store, fitness center, restaurants, more retail, etc.) and also bring much more:

• triple the amount of retail space (300,000 sq. ft.)
• 10 - 12 restaurants
• expanded grocery store with pharmacy/hardware
• a theatre
• 3500 parking spaces (mostly underground)
• pedestrian-oriented open space
• 1.2 million sq. ft. of Class A office space
• sustainable building and development techniques

PROCESS

The Kirkland Parkplace project has been in consultation with Kirkland’s Planning Commission and Design Review Board from its inception. Both the City and the developer recognize the incredible opportunity that exists to create a vibrant, engaging project that is an asset to the community. Touchstone has applied for a private amendment request (PAR) of the Comprehensive Plan.

The environmental review process for Parkplace will continue into the summer of 2008 resulting in a Planned Action Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and a Planned Action Ordinance expected in August. The Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) is available for download - caution it is an 11.8MB PDF. The EIS will determine many issues key to the project — including the required number of parking spaces the project will need to provide.

ECONOMICS

From its conception, the project had the vision of providing active open public spaces where the Kirkland community can interact, expanded retail space to provide a mix of regional and national tenants, and pedestrian-oriented pathways and gateways that interact with Peter Kirk Park (the current structures actually have parking lots and brick walls facing the park).

In order to accomplish this vision, some real-world decisions had to be made. To allow for the large open spaces and pedestrian-orientation throughout the site, the vast majority of parking would need to be underground - an expensive proposition. Retail experts have reported that in order to develop a thriving economic environment for shopping, there must be an appropriate amount of retail space. To help offset the high cost of underground parking, there needs to be an increase in office space on the site.

Together, all of these elements help to make the project viable. Each element adds to the project as a whole, thus allowing for luxuries such as public spaces, increased retail space and underground parking to be economically viable.

PARKING

Parking supply (or perceived lack thereof), has been an issue that engenders much confusion in the public. Critics of the project claim that the needs of the project will be for well over 5,000 spaces — far more than the 3500 planned.

The ultimate determination of parking supply needs will be made in the EIS. Touchstone will be required to build the amount of parking as required by the EIS.

Part of the confusion around parking is based in the fact that different uses have different peak parking needs. The individual needs of office, hotel, and retail all have different times of the day when parking is needed. For example, office workers have peak parking needs during the day, at a time when both retail and hotel parking needs are low. In the evening, as office parking needs subside, retail picks up. Later in the evening, hotel needs increase. It is this more efficient use of parking that is the goal of project. See the Parking Graphs from the DEIS for further explanation.

By including significant additional office space in downtown Kirkland, Parkplace is aiding the goal of the City in creating the possibility for citizens to both live and work in the same city. More jobs in Kirkland means fewer commute trips between work and home. Fewer commute trips means fewer cars on the road and less of a need for parking.

We made further inquiry into the calculations behind Touchstone’s estimate of 3,500 parking spaces needed for the preferred mixed-use plan. Touchstone responded to our request by providing the data and explanation we have used in the chart below (you may download the PDF here):

The demand rate per 1000 GSF used in the first column is the one that most transportation engineers use for parking analysis. They come from the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) Parking Generation, which is now in its third edition. This manual has collected parking demand data for thousands of uses and then categorizes them.  We refer to them as “national average rates,” since the database includes projects from around the country.  The parking rates for “office buildings” is based on the average of 173 sites.

The % mode share values come from actual data of businesses in Kirkland that are near the site. These reflect data for businesses that actually have a transportation management plan in place.

Finally, it’s important to keep in mind that it is not to Touchstone’s advantage to under-park the site. This would diminish the value of the space for office tenants, and limit our ability to attract retailers. This alignment of our interest with the public’s with respect to parking is perhaps the most compelling reason to have confidence in the parking analysis.

Note: The original chart and accompanying text that was submitted by Touchstone contained an error which has since been corrected. 

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