Published March 2003

Plan positions
Lynnwood for success

Location, location, location — often said to be the three most important elements of successful real estate development — are also among the reasons that Lynnwood’s proposed City Center Project seems destined to succeed.

Historically a residential community known for its miles of commercial development along 196th Street SW and Highway 99, as well as being home to the massive, regional Alderwood Mall, Lynnwood is fortuitously at the nexus of I-5 and I-405.

That makes it a convenient, popular site for business development and population growth as rising land costs and shrinking property inventories in King County encourage employers and employees to look northward for growth and development.

The latest example of that interest was the arrival in January of Cypress Semiconductor, occupying its new $11 million building on 164th Street SW as the first tenant in the new Opus Northpointe Corporate Campus. The San Jose, Calif.-based electronics company consolidated its facilities in Bothell and Woodinville, bringing 150 employees to the Lynnwood site.

And, within the past two years, the Sparling Building and Cosmos Lynnwood Center have added Class A office space to the property mix, prime facilities that unfortunately entered the market just in time to see the city’s office vacancy rate soar as the economy sank.

While “growth and development” are still sluggish in both counties, the Puget Sound region’s economy is rumored to be showing more strength, positioning itself for a slow but welcome resurgence over the next few years.

That timing should please Lynnwood officials, the South Snohomish County Chamber of Commerce, private developers and others who are supporting efforts to create the city’s first downtown business district. The city’s 20-year plan, just released in draft form, envisions multi-stored buildings, a new street grid, pedestrian-friendly shopping and living environments, and the city’s first convention center, on which construction is expected to begin soon.

The city is at a historic moment when the needs of the economy, population growth, business development and traffic congestion all are demanding solutions. Development of a central business district, timed with construction of the convention center and the expansion of the Alderwood Mall, seems like the right thing to do and the right time to do it.

Strong economic growth will return to south Snohomish County and the Lynnwood area inevitably. Supporters of the development plan — a joint effort by both public and private entities — are wisely trying to guide that development by the creation of an attractive, high-density commercial and residential core, in line with the dictates of the city’s Growth Management Plan.

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