Published August 2001

Meeting puts
project pieces together

By John Wolcott
Herald Business Journal Editor

When Joel Starr suggested a luncheon meeting at the Monte Cristo Hotel to tell people about all of the things happening in downtown Everett, he was told he'd be lucky to see 50 people show up.

But the late June meeting opened with 150 people, including a sellout for the luncheon, chairs along the walls for those who didn't get to eat Starr's catered meal from his Flying Pig restaurant and standing room only for the rest of the crowd.

While the individual projects weren't new to the city leaders and merchants who gathered for the June 27 session, their collective impact caught people's enthusiasm, spurring comments from many of them that it had been a long time since so many projects were happening in the downtown core.

Starr, who heads the Downtown Everett Action Committee, and Everett Area Chamber of Commerce President Louise Stanton-Masten introduced the speakers.

Dale Moses led off the presentations, describing the planned "campus redevelopment" for county government facilities. He told the audience the $140 million project will absorb county facilities scattered in 18 locations in Everett (saving $2 million a year in rent), add more jail space and create more courtrooms by late 2004.

Then, Paul Kaftanski of the city of Everett described the four-story, $44 million Everett Station progress, a multi-modal transit center due to be completed by December. The adjacent $15 million Pacific Avenue overpass project will be finished in November, providing access to the transit site.

The first occupants, the University Consortium, will be offering college classes in the building by late January, followed by WorkForce Everett, an office of the state Employment Security Division. By February, the first transit providers should be operating from the Everett Station, including Community, Everett and Sound Transit, taxi cabs, Greyhound and Trailways buses and Shuttle Express, serving Sea-Tac Airport.

In the first quarter of 2002, Amtrak trains will begin using the new station, with Sound Transit's Sounder commuter rail to Seattle and Tacoma arriving in early 2003.

The presence of the high-tech, wired transit center is expected to attract new neighborhood residential development and even commercial and light industrial high-tech businesses, Kaftanski said.

Everett Public Facilities District board member Rich Anderson said the $60 million arena/convention center planned for sports and special events in the downtown core likely would host ice hockey, basketball, professional ice-skating shows and concerts, with configurations ranging from 8,500 to 10,000 seats.

The center also will provide space for conferences, conventions and trade shows, and a second sheet of ice is being recommended for public skating and youth hockey.

The Everett City Council will vote early this month on the final site. The top-ranked location is bounded by Broadway, Hewitt, Oakes and Lombard streets, a site that will erase several businesses but generate new economic benefits for commercial development of the downtown core and historic Hewitt Avenue buildings.

The top three design/build team proposals — from Mortenson Construction/HOK Sport Architects, Turner Construction/Ellerbe Becket Architects and PCL Construction/LMN and PBK Architects — will be on display at the Monte Cristo Hotel from Aug. 28 to Sept. 6.

Among those attending the meeting was Craig Dieffenbach, a private developer who has already invested more than $5 million in several of Hewitt Avenue's historic buildings.

His first tenant is Bill Louf, owner of ImageMasters, a graphic design studio, and an allied photography enterprise, Photo Graphic Dimensions. Louf moved into renovated space at 1814 Hewitt Ave., adjacent to Jack's Men's Shop and Finley's Architects and Interiors.

Hal Jensen of Perteet Engineering told the audience the city's Hewitt Streetscape Project began with the need to replace aging sewer pipes running beneath Hewitt Avenue from Rucker to Broadway, then evolved into an opportunity to create a more inviting environment for the downtown core.

Jensen said the $8 million project will have a dramatic impact on the commercial district, providing new sewer lines for businesses, the county campus and the new sports arena.

Above ground, the visual impact will be even greater, providing new landscaping, street lights, transit areas and amenities that will create an inviting pedestrian realm for Hewitt Avenue businesses.

"We can improve traffic and transit flow and still provide an attractive gateway entrance to the city through this major historical corridor," Jensen said.

Speaker Steve Cupic talked about the need for more residential development in downtown Everett and described his Nautica project, a five-story, 121-unit apartment complex with ground-floor retail tenants and two floors of covered parking at Hewitt and Grand avenues. The $9 million development is expected to open later this year.

"I believe we are seeing the beginning of a downtown Everett never witnessed before and the gentrification (of the city) that is needed so badly," said Cupic, who was raised in Everett and owns Seattle-based Cascasia Pacific Properties.

Marianne Roberts, board Chairwoman for the Children's Museum of Snohomish County in downtown Everett, said the museum will soon leave its temporary quarters on Colby Avenue to move into a renovated building previously occupied by Everett Mutual Bank, across the street from the Monte Cristo Hotel.

Now the museum is beginning its fund-raising campaign to renovate the building, transforming it into a major downtown attraction, a 14-month project after funding is secured. A focus group for the business community will be held at the museum Sept. 13 to gather ideas on design and project development issues.

The last speaker, Ron Hundley, President of Henry Cogswell College, said he anticipates growing enrollment in Cogswell's high-tech classes in coming years, bringing even more students and faculty to the downtown area.

"We expect to have 1,000 students by 2010, with 100 faculty," Hundley said. "We plan to add 30,000 square feet of space in 2005, but by 2010 we'll need to expand again. Hopefully, we may have student housing downtown by then."

Stanton-Masten said the Everett chamber is negotiating for space to move the chamber's headquarters downtown, too.

"There will be disruption downtown for the next few years during construction, but it's exciting to think about the long-term positive impact and what this community will be like as a place to live, work and play," she said.

Related: Major projects could bring hustle, bustle
back to city core

Related: Flying Pig's success offers glimpse of what could be

Related: Redevelopment project meets needs
of county, downtown

Related: North Marina plan aims to bring people, business to waterfront

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