The owners of Chateau Ste. Michelle hope to redevelop the Seattle area wine destination, possibly by adding a hotel, stores and at least 90 homes, a representative told Woodinville City Council members last month.
The current zoning for the 118-acre property would allow those additions, but Chateau Ste. Michelle’s owners also want a zoning change from the city that could allow additional, denser housing at the Sammamish River Valley site.
They may not get that change, judging by comments from some of the council members who heard about the potential redevelopment at a meeting Jan. 16. The rezone could allow homes to be built not only on undeveloped land west of the winery complex, but also within the complex.
“I don’t see how that supports the vision we have,” Councilmember Michelle Evans said about the rezone, voting with her colleagues to review Chateau Ste. Micihelle’s land-use proposal as a standalone question this year, rather than consolidating it into a broader update of Woodinville’s 20-year comprehensive plan, as requested by the prominent winery.
A comprehensive plan amendment, whether reviewed on its own or packaged with other possible changes, would pave the way for an actual rezone.
“I don’t see what the benefit to the city is,” Councilmember Sarah Arndt said.
Jack McCullough, a real estate attorney who represented Chateau Ste. Michelle at the Jan. 16 meeting, said his clients might want to build about 90 detached homes on the undeveloped land, which already has residential zoning, and up to 60 town houses within a rezoned winery complex.
He showed the council preliminary designs that would add a hotel, a new music venue and potential stores or market halls on the Chateau Ste. Michelle grounds while retaining a tasting room and the winery’s Manor House.
The existing complex dates to 1976, when Chateau Ste. Michelle built a French-style winery on the site of an estate that once belonged to Seattle lumber baron Frederick Stimson. It’s now part of Ste. Michelle Wine Estates, which describes itself as the largest winery in the Pacific Northwest and sells wines under multiple labels, including 14 Hands and Columbia Crest.
The company sold for $1.2 billion in 2021 to the private equity firm Sycamore Partners and has stopped making wine in Woodinville, after long splitting its production between the Seattle suburb and Eastern Washington.
The new owners listed Chateau Ste. Michelle for sale in 2022 but later took the property off the market and started working on redevelopment ideas about six months ago, said McCullough, the company’s representative, describing the details of the designs he shared with the council Jan. 16 as speculative.
“The goal of ownership is to try to preserve and make sustainable what’s great about the site,” McCullough said, arguing the additions could provide economic support for the winery’s existing Woodinville operations.
He noted two locations “where we would consider developing town house units,” if the winery’s zoning was changed from “industrial business” to “tourist business.” To build housing in a tourist business zone, Chateau Ste. Michelle would also need to negotiate a development agreement with the city.
“This is not high-rise residential, not large apartment buildings,” McCullough said, downplaying the potential density after a number of public commenters warned the council that a major housing project could spoil the character of Chateau Ste. Michelle while increasing traffic and pollution.
Several commenters mentioned the demise of another beloved local business, Molbak’s Garden + Home, which recently closed in downtown Woodinville after the sudden collapse of a long-awaited redevelopment project.
“Would New York be New York without Central Park? Would Seattle be Seattle without Pike Place Market?” commenter Susan Carroll asked, comparing those attractions to Chateau Ste. Michelle’s significance for Woodinville.
Mayor Mike Millman said he could support “90% of what’s being proposed” by the Chateau Ste. Michelle owners but voiced reservations about the rezone.
“Our vision is to build out a very robust, walkable, vibrant downtown, with housing concentrated in that area,” as opposed to the more rural and industrial area where Chateau St. Michelle is located, Millman said. “I love a lot of what this project is. … Having said that, I’m not favorable to town homes in the main property. I think that is not what Woodinville wants.”
Although the council rejected Chateau Ste. Michelle’s request to have its land-use amendment considered as part of the comprehensive plan update that cities must complete every 10 years, the winery can still advance its proposal separately, Woodinville’s development services director said.
“At this point, Ste. Michelle has not formally withdrawn their comprehensive plan amendment application for consideration under the annual process and we are waiting for them to tell us what they want to do,” Kevin O’Neill, an assistant to Woodinville’s city manager, wrote in an email Thursday.
McCullough didn’t return requests for comment this week.
Councilmember Rachel Best-Campbell urged the city’s planners to focus on the potential rezone’s details, not the “pretty pictures” presented.
“I don’t trust the pictures,” Best-Campbell said about the Chateau Ste. Michelle designs, noting that properties can be sold and developments can evolve.
