Heritage Neighborhood Association

Eastgate (Wal-Mart) UPDATE FROM THE cOLUMBIAN

Spring start eyed for Eastgate work

Tuesday, January 15, 2008
By CAMI JONER, Columbian staff writer

Construction could begin this spring on Eastgate Plaza, a long-awaited $80 million retail project to include a Wal-Mart and Office Max in Orchards. The 47-acre complex is south of Northeast Fourth Plain Boulevard between 137th and 147th avenues.

Other tenants are expected to be a large home improvement store, a Jackin-the-Box, a family-style Golden Corral Buffet and a branch of iQ Credit Union.

Work is going forward, now that plans have been worked out for a road system to serve the development.

"I suspect they'll break ground as soon as the weather allows," said Deborah Ewing, a vice president with Vancouver-based Eric Fuller & Associates commercial real estate firm.

Ewing said she receives at least two phone calls a week from nearby residents who want a Wal-Mart. "They're upset because it isn't there yet," said Ewing, the project's leasing agent.

Wal-Mart spokeswoman Jennifer Spall said the company is working out a construction schedule for the 209,000-square-foot store, but it is still unclear when construction might begin.

"We've been awaiting resolution of the road and development agreement," she said.

Road agreement
Eastgate construction has been held up since 2004 while developers and Vancouver transportation officials devised plans for about two miles of roads to serve the 250-acre Birtcher Business Center, a mixed-use development of office and lightindustrial space that includes Eastgate Plaza.

"The issues have all been solved," said Jason Bontrager, a spokesman for Bellevuebased Alexandria Investment, developer of Eastgate Plaza.

The company has agreed to spend about $10 million to develop a section of Northeast 147th Avenue south from 63rd Street to connect with a 1.25-mile stretch of the new eastand westbound Northeast 59th Street, which Alexandria will also develop. The roads will be a relief valve for busy Fourth Plain, said Thayer Rorabaugh, Vancouver's transportation manager.

"Eastgate is responsible for developing the infrastructure," he said.

Bontrager said his company has already begun working on the north- and southbound 147th Avenue. However, the company has not yet received approval from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to build the sector of 59th Street through a wetlands on the edge of Burnt Bridge Creek.

"We are requiring that they deposit money in an escrow account to assure us that they're going to build those streets," Rorabaugh said.

Retail first, office second
Office and light-industrial space planned for the site's remaining 200 or so acres will eventually be developed by Birtcher Development and Investment Co. The Irvine, Calif.-based company has said it does not plan to develop the space until after the site's retail development opens.

At full build-out, city officials expect the 250-acre mixeduse development will generate about 2,400 vehicle trips at peak hours. They'll be kept off Fourth Plain once 59th Street connects to Northeast 162nd Avenue, Rorabaugh said.

"We're attempting to provide access to all the property south of Fourth Plain so that those vehicles won't have to use it," he said.