Published January 2003

Buildings set to go up,
fill up at Mill Creek’s
Town Center

By Jana Hill
Special to the SCBJ

While an anchor tenant is still sought, two buildings at the new Town Center in Mill Creek are filling up fast.

Two lots are nearly sold, with Red Jacobsen’s lot having closed and Rolf Trautmann’s lot to close at the end of January.

Jacobsen owns one of the first two buildings that will be constructed in Town Center. Ground will break on the 30,000-square-foot building by mid-January at the latest, he said.

Jacobsen said he expects his building to be assessed at up to $7 million. Combined costs for construction and land are $5.3 million.

He said his tenants — seven have agreed to lease space — provide the ambience many business owners have envisioned for Town Center, Mill Creek’s planned downtown core.

Businesses that rival south Snohomish County’s strip-mall culture will provide a “small town feel” that has become part of Mill Creek’s identity.

Names of the businesses could not be released. But the ice creamery will be the “first one north of Seattle,” Jacobsen said. His building also will have Mexican and Mediterranean restaurants, a French bakery and a specialty wine and gift shop.

Jacobsen’s building will be framed by a greenbelt, like all of Town Center. The building will be bordered by North and Mill creeks. Trautmann owns a lot in Town Center across from Jacobsen’s.

Trautmann hopes for three tenants in his three-story, 16,000-square-foot building.

Trautmann has a potential tenant for the second floor, which he describes as “professional offices.”

The business he co-owns with Dennis Maher in Mill Creek — Trautmann, Maher and Associates, a retirement planning, consulting and administration business — will move into 6,000 square feet on the third floor.

Trautmann hopes to begin construction in February with completion in August.

Meanwhile, the developer for the Town Center, Mill Creek Town Center LLC (a company formed by John and William Buchan) has hired C.B. Richard Ellis Listing Agency to find an anchor tenant or tenants for Town Center.

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