Crews have started work on the first of three inroads to a future mixed-use development at the former Evergreen Airport off Southeast Mill Plain Boulevard and Northeast 136th Avenue.
But developers say it could take a while before the tract sprouts stores, offices and homes. Work will extend Olympia Drive northward into the 59-acre tract and then will bring Southeast First and Fourth streets east through the grassy site.
The prime real estate parcel once was the home of a privately-owned general aviation airport. Its new owners, Vancouver-based B52 Point LLC investment group, paid $10.4 million for the tract in 2009. The group plans to eventually develop the site with a $215 million shopping, office and residential project originally proposed by Seattle-based Opus Northwest in 2006.