Questions and Answers

We submitted questions to both Touchstone and KCRD about their perspectives on the Parkplace redevelopment. KCRD replied with copies of documents filed with the Planning Commission requesting a “redo” of the Draft Environmental Impact Study. The following questions about the future of Kirkland Parkplace were submitted to Touchstone Corp. Their answers follow:

We are currently seeking a Private Amendment Request (PAR) to change the zoning to allow for some of the buildings on the site to be 8 stories. Until we have certainty about whether the request will be approved, we don’t know whether we can build the mixed-use project, and so we can’t begin significant conversations with specific retail tenants.

Mixed Use Scenario:

That being said, we are in conversation with QFC (an existing tenant at the site) to create an expanded QFC that would include many additional essentials such as hardware (light bulbs, picture hooks etc) and pharmacy. The old QFC would stay open until the new location complete. We also have a full time employee dedicated to working with the current tenants at Park Place to help them come up with individualized plans with respect to the redevelopment. We hope that many of the current tenants would return to the site.  

Overall, we envision a mix of local, regional and national tenants that would provide many of the things that meet Kirkland residents’ “needs” (hardware, socks, t-shirts, groceries), as well as restaurants, services (movies, health club) and other shops (books, clothes, etc) that would create a great destination. With 300,000 SF of retail, we think that we could provide a critical mass of businesses that are complimentary to those that already exist downtown and that together create a great downtown shopping experience.

Office Alternative Scenario:

This alternative is within the existing zoning guidelines and would have smaller buildings. It would have a few (4-5) retail establishments that support the office workers such as FedEx, Kinkos, office supplies, and a few (4-5) restaurants/cafes that could serve the office workers’ needs at lunch. Under Phase 1 of this alternative the QFC would remain in its current location.

The City of Kirkland has prepared an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that includes a detailed analysis of the traffic impacts of the proposed mixed-use project and the “no action alternative” which would include projects conforming with the existing zoning. The draft EIS is available on the City of Kirkland website and is subject to a public comment period that extends until May 19th. The EIS takes an in-depth look at the traffic impacts of development in the City of Kirkland over the next 15 years, and prescribes the mitigation that the developers will need to undertake to compensate for the traffic impacts of their projects. This mitigation can be done in-kind (e.g. road widening or signalization) or by the city through the impact fees that are levied on the project. Touchstone is fully committed to working with the city to understand our project’s impact and to mitigate traffic effectively.

 

Finally, on an intuitive level, it bears noting that the office workers coming to the project from outside Kirkland would be on a reverse-commute from residents of Kirkland heading to Bellevue or Seattle. With additional jobs available in Kirkland, some Kirkland residents who currently contribute to the traffic leaving Kirkland in the morning and returning at night would be able to avoid the main arterials altogether.

When Touchstone purchased the Kirkland Park Place property and was looking at redevelopment alternatives, one of the first places we looked for guidance was the 2001 Kirkland Downtown Strategic Plan. This plan articulated a need for additional parking downtown, preferably underground, additional density at Kirkland Park Place, strong pedestrian connections to surrounding streets and to Peter Kirk Park, great open spaces and additional retail that was complimentary to the existing downtown retail. To understand more about the retail needs of Kirkland, Touchstone hired Bob Gibbs, a consultant who had worked extensively with Kirkland on the original Downtown Strategic Plan, and who is a nationally renowned retail expert. After conducting a research study, (and knowing Kirkland well from his prior work) he advised that a critical mass of 300,000 SF of retail was required to make a mixed-used development work at KPP.

 

Retail is a tricky thing to build. When it is leased, the developer tends to pay much more for tenant build-outs (known as TI costs) than for office build-outs. Often, it can take 3-5 years of leasing revenue (on a 10-year lease) to pay back the retail TI costs. Furthermore, a proportion of the initial retailers will turn over in the first few years, leaving Touchstone paying the TI costs twice on some of these spaces. When developers say the “retail is difficult to stabilize” this is the phenomenon they are referring to.

 

In addition, the proposed mixed use alternative includes underground parking (expensive to provide) and 45% of the site dedicated to enhanced public active open spaces that include art and water features (expensive to provide and non-revenue-generating).

 

In order to meet all the needs articulated by the city and build a great project, it made sense to build a few more floors of office on some of the buildings to help stabilize the project financially. We have concentrated this height away from the park with significant upper level step-backs and an initial set-back of 60 feet from the park (the current QFC has a 0 foot set-back from the park). In fact, while our private amendment request asks for 0 feet set backs in some limited areas, our average set back from the property line at 35 feet, is nearly twice the 20 feet required in the existing zoning.

 

We are excited about our mixed-use proposal and feel it has evolved significantly and been made better by the public comments we have received as well the Design Review Board’s (DRB’s) thoughtful process.

 

In light of the uncertainty around the approval of our Private Amendment Request (PAR), we have filed an office alternative plan that conforms to the existing zoning. It has limited retail to serve the office workers’ needs (please see question above) and a different type of open space (more “passive” office gardens as opposed to “active” space with cafes, art, lots of people and programming). If we go ahead with this project it would be an exceptional quality, environmentally sensitive project, but would be very different in character from the mixed-use alternative that is covered by the PAR.

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