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Landing delayed at onetime airport

Roads, at bargain prices, will go in, but rest of the development will wait on economy

By Cami Joner
Published: July 19, 2010, 12:00am

The new owners of the former Evergreen Airport are moving forward with plans to build roads through the grassy parcel that once launched and landed hundreds of small planes.

But after the roads are in place, it could take many months or even years before the 59-acre site sprouts stores, restaurants, offices and homes, said Judee Wells, a Bellevue attorney and member of B52 Point of Evergreen LLC. The B52 Point group paid $10.4 million in 2009 for the former private airstrip at Southeast Mill Plain Boulevard and 136th Avenue.

Wells said her group expects to follow an already approved master plan to develop the site as The Landing at Evergreen, a mixed-use development that was first proposed as a $215 million project in 2006 by Seattle-based Opus Northwest. In 2008, Portland-based ELD Development took over the project as a planned “lifestyle” development of upscale shops, restaurants, housing, offices and hotel.

The project was grounded by a restricted lending climate for developers and by Clark County’s slumping real estate market.

“There’s no point in building new buildings when you don’t have any occupants,” Wells said.

The site was cleared after the airport closed and is currently a vacant field.

Well’s group expects to receive bargain-basement bids from the contractors seeking to build the roads.

“Road costs are down,” Wells said.

She expects the work to start before the end of the year.

“Our goal is to put in some roads and sidewalks, and then move forward with development,” Wells said.

The roadwork would punch Olympia Drive north through the site from Mill Plain Boulevard. It would also bring Southeast First and Fourth streets east through the property.

Wells said her group has also made one additional change to The Landing’s master plan, which originally included about 9 acres owned by Dale Haagen of Evergreen Management Services.

Haagen withdrew his tract from the project, so that reduced The Landing’s plan to 135 housing units, down from more than 200 units once proposed at the corner of Northeast Fourth Street and 136th Avenue.

“We needed to do that before we could start on the roads,” said Wells.

She would not name the other members of B52 Point, but said, “The primary LLC owners live in Vancouver.”

She said the owners have the financial wherewithal to patiently wait out the stagnant economy. “We’re long-term investors. We’re not having to turn around and make an immediate return,” Wells said.

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