Published November 2003

Economic Development Briefs

Monroe, Darrington study
racetrack opportunity
Two Snohomish County cities, Monroe and Darrington, are considering joining the race for a NASCAR-sanctioned racetrack.

Local officials recently flew to Kansas City, Kan.,to meet International Speedway Corp. officials at one of its racetracks, the Kansas Speedway.

The Daytona Beach, Fla., corporation, one of the nation’s leading motorsports promoters including NASCAR, is looking to build a “major sports facility” in the Northwest to add to the 13 others it runs around the country, ISC spokesman David Talley said.

“We’re in the very, very preliminary stages of trying to make something happen,” Talley said. ISC is scouting racetrack locations in Washington as well as Oregon, he said.

“We talked about a lot of stuff — the development there, pros and cons, the impacts, the benefits — it was a fact-finding mission,” said Snohomish County Economic Development Council Vice President Michael Cade, who accompanied Monroe Mayor Donnetta Walser on the trip.

The possibility of an 85,000-seat, 1-mile NASCAR-sanctioned racetrack would be a “very large opportunity” for the area, he said.

According to promotional materials International Speedway Corp. provided to Darrington officials, the track could cost $150 million to build, employ 2,200 people, generate $87 million in annual revenues, and another $58 million in state and local taxes.

Central Market to anchor
Mill Creek Town Center
Central Market will be the anchor retailer in Mill Creek’s retrofitted downtown.

The announcement comes as businesses begin moving into the first phase of Mill Creek Town Center, about 23 acres of land with some 300,000 square feet of building space available for retail, office or residential use.

Construction is under way on two of the lots. The first business, financial adviser Trautmann Maher & Associates, just moved into its new space.

More offices are in the works, along with ground-floor shops and a second-story restaurant. Not all of the tenants have been identified, said Cari Hornbein, a senior planner in Mill Creek.

As for the anchor retailer, a 50,000-plus-square-foot Central Market is expected to open in the center next year.

“We’ve been looking for another site for quite a while now,” said Larry Nakata, president of Town & Country Markets, which operates six Puget Sound-area stores under the names Town & Country Markets and Central Market.

Mill Creek will be the third Central Market, following others in Poulsbo and Shoreline.

The markets offer mainline products common to other grocery stores, Nakata said, but they also cater to those interested in “fresh products and whole-health lifestyles.”

County Council overturns veto
of Island Crossing rezone request
The Snohomish County Council voted Oct. 22 to overturn County Executive Bob Drewel’s earlier veto of auto dealer Dwayne Lane’s request for a rezone at Island Crossing.

It was the first time in his 12 years as executive that the outgoing Drewel had a veto overturned.

The council voted 4-1, with Councilman Dave Gossett in the minority, to override Drewel’s veto. The vote was the same as when the council first voted on the rezone in August.

Drewel in late September rejected Lane’s proposed rezone, which would change roughly 110 acres at Island Crossing north of Marysville from agriculture to commercial zoning.

He said the change would run afoul of state growth laws. And given the state’s earlier rejection of a similar County Council zoning change for farmland near the Tulalip Indian Reservation, Drewel said the county could lose millions of dollars for roads and parks if the state levied sanctions.

Some on the council said they were voting for the zoning change because Arlington wants to annex the land. And with the county’s economy in such bad shape, council members said, development at Island Crossing would bring much-needed jobs to the area.

Gossett, a Democrat, said flooding was the key issue for him. While Lane has promised that his development would not make flooding worse for neighboring properties, Gossett said other property owners in the rezone area may not follow suit.

The veto was Drewel’s third in 12 years. It was the first one overturned, and came on the same day that Gov. Gary Locke proclaimed “Bob Drewel Day” in recognition of his record of public service.

“They clearly see it differently,” Drewel said of the council’s vote.

“We have done our jobs,” he said. “I have done my job, and they have done theirs.”

Some expect the council’s decision to end up in court. Growth activists said earlier that they would challenge the rezone if the council approved it.

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