Published February
2001
Opus
gears up for Northpointe in Lynnwood
By
Kimberly Hilden
Herald Business Journal Assistant Editor
With a wetlands permit
finally in place, construction of the Opus Northpointe Corporate Center
in Lynnwood should begin this spring, said Dave Kessler, Real Estate Manager
for Opus Northwest LLC.
“We closed on the
land on Dec. 22. Construction is expected to begin in April,” Kessler
said about the 90-acre master-planned corporate campus to be located off
164th Street SW near Interstate 5 in the Lynnwood area. “We have all of
our entitlements in place and only need to go through the building permit
process.”
Bellevue-based Opus
Northwest LLC had planned to break ground on the $130 million development
last spring, but getting a Section 404 permit, which deals with regulation
of the discharge of dredge or fill material, from the U.S. Army Corp of
Engineers took about a year longer than expected, Kessler said.
“The 404 permit
was really an unknown for a while,” he said, but in October, the permit
came through. And now that it has, Opus Northwest plans to get the project
under way.
An agreement has
been signed to make the Opus Northpointe center a Verizon SmartPark, loaded
with fiber-optic lines, Kessler said, adding that the first two buildings
should be completed by the end of this year.
“We’ll probably
construct in three phases,” Kessler said of the complex, which, when completed,
will consist of more than 700,000 square feet of office and technology
space.
Buildings “C” and
“D,” the first two, will have about 130,000 square feet of combined space,
he said, and will cost about $23 million to develop. The construction
timeframe for the rest of the development will depend on the market and
customer interest.
Location alone should
spark interest among businesses on the Eastside and in Seattle, said Gary
Bullington, a Director at Cushman & Wakefield who is involved in leasing
and selling space at the Opus Northpointe center.
There’s really two
corridors that project is designed to serve, Bullington said, I-405 and
I-5.
“This is a project
we think will appeal to the types of people who go into Bothell technology-type
buildings. It will be very attractive to people in downtown Seattle or
the northern portion of downtown Seattle” in terms of rental/purchase
rates and the commute, he said.
According to literature
from Opus Northwest, the project’s floor plans range from 20,000 to 50,000
square feet, with mechanical systems and electrical circuits designed
to accommodate technology needs. Parking is planned at a ratio of approximately
four spaces per 1,000 square feet of rentable space, and there will be
more than 40 acres of natural open space on the site.
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