Groundbreaking kicks off project that will bring 91 new residential homes to heart of Westgate

More than 25 citizens, business owners, project personnel and City officials gathered Wednesday morning to break ground for a new multi-use project that promises a major step forward in revitalizing the Westgate neighborhood.

In keeping with the goal of providing walkability and creating vibrant public spaces, the project will include a large landscaped plaza area adjacent to the building. Additionally, the structure is being carefully placed far back on the site to help it blend in with the terrain and visibly merge with the steep slopes on the south edge of the property. The project is being built on a parcel on the southwest corner of the Westgate intersection at 10032 Edmonds Way, currently containing an empty retail pad and the remains of an old building foundation in the area of the current Bartell Drug.

With construction planned for later this year, the project offers a mix of residential units, street-level space for small businesses, and both surface and underground parking. And developers say they are taking positive steps to attract new residents from across the economic spectrum, with 20 percent of the units designated as affordable housing, renting at below market, according to Mark Craig, president of Henbart LLC, the commercial real estate firm spearheading the project. Henbart is an affiliate company of Bartell Drug and owned by the Bartell family.

“This is critical piece of the plan to invigorate Westgate as a vital, walkable, rich neighborhood,” said Edmonds Mayor Dave Earling. “We have the amenities here already — everything from grocery stores to salons to restaurants — the big missing piece has been close-in housing. This project provides that.”

For more details on the project, including additional renderings and site plans, see earlier My Edmonds News coverage here.

— Story and photos by Larry Vogel

  1. Let’s hope the city has planned for safe walking in the area. The benefits of walking need to have safe places to do it. I like all the flags placed in busy intersections in other parts of town.

  2. With 91 residences and retail, how many underground parking spaces will there be? Even if the 91 have one car each, and even only half of them have no cars, will there be ample parking?

  3. In my estimation 35 underground stalls are hardly sufficient. The above ground stalls will be mostly taken up by retail, and if they are also taken up by some of the 91 residences, it is going to be REALLY interesting.
    But who am I to question genius.

  4. Council agreed to the parking requirements. The more parking that is demanded with a project the less likely a project will “pencil out”.

  5. I really hope they figured the parking out, because this area is already a challenge at times. The increased traffic is going to be a mess. For fun, try making a right out of that lot onto Edmonds Way and then make a left onto 9th. Already impossible when there is ferry traffic.

    1. If you want to get onto 100th, what you’re referring to as 9th, you should use the exit that takes you directly onto 100th.

  6. Aren’t we in the sustainable post-auto age? At least one of the Planning meetings said we were…

    So who needs parking stalls? We can walk, use bicycles, wheel chairs, walkers, Uber, Lyft, buses, etc.

    In other words, this was not well thought out…

  7. Construction is already well underway at this site and the most westerly entrance off of Edmonds Way is now closed. Parking is going to be a big problem during the construction.

  8. PARKING – In the final plans: Mixed use residential zoning requires 1.2 parking spaces per unit = 110. The project provides 133 spaces. The units are small – there are none greater than 1,000 sf; Retail zoning requires 61 spaces and 61 are provided. I am not saying the parking is adequate, and have significant concerns about traffic, ingress and egress, but want to clarify what the parking provided is. You can go to the Staff final report in zoning (STF20170005 on the city website) and look at a detailed series of drawings and plans on this project. Comparable versions of the project in the planning stages nearly a year ago were publicized and on My Edmonds News, so what is being built now should not come as a surprise.

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