After being named Zillow’s hottest housing market for early 2022, it’s no wonder that the town is now experiencing an avalanche of investor activity. The City of Woodinville has largely been successful in reinventing itself from a quiet drive-through suburb into a major tourist destination for the area, taking full advantage of its renowned wineries and tasting rooms. However, this pivot has also caused Woodinville’s growth to outpace previous projections, having grown 30% between 2000-2021, and expecting another 38% growth from 2021-2040. In order to tackle this unanticipated growth and better capitalize on its attractiveness for tourists and future residents, the Woodinville city government has created a marketing and expansion strategy centered on the support and expansion of mixed-use winemaking and retail districts, one such area being the Downtown District. Although it has yet to live up to its name, the Downtown District is set to completely transform the relatively quiet downtown retail space into a thriving heart for Woodinville as major redevelopment plans push forward with the goal of creating thousands of new housing units, commercial space, and other amenities.
With such ambitious changes ahead, Woodinville Mayor Mike Millman published a letter to residents emphasizing that saying “no” to development simply isn’t an option in face of the state’s Growth Management Act (GMA), Millman continues, outlining Woodinville’s goals for the future with the intention of soothing fears many have over the city’s projected growth. Across all currently planned developments, Woodinville is ready to add over 3,000 new housing units if all are completed. And in a city of 13,000 residents (as of the 2020 census), this explosive expansion represents a pretty significant change that some citizens believe spells disaster for the function, and soul, of the city.
I have traveled the area with the purpose of looking at other development projects. And I can confidently say the majority of Woodinville City Council is opposed to development that is out of character with our city. I am confident we will oppose creation of the “concrete canyon,” flat-panel look that has occurred elsewhere.
Mayor Mike Millman, April 14th, 2022
Woodinville just ain’t what it used to be ….
Debra Abram, July 12th, 2022 – Woodinville Neighbors Facebook Group
A large number of criticisms seem to target the fact that Woodinville’s boom is happening without plans for a light rail or bus rapid transit (BRT), the kind of infrastructure many other suburbs are getting despite stopping their growth (like Mercer Island) or considering such a move (like Lynnwood). Woodinville was cut from SR 522 Stride BRT plans in 2020, instead getting a less-frequent express bus connecting to the 522 BRT line, set to begin in 2026.
Woodin Creek Village
A present-day visit to the Downtown District showcases two existing mixed-used developments reminiscent to many locals as being of a similar style to downtown Redmond. One complex, Woodin Creek Village, is an apartment, dining, and retail zone centered on a walkable commercial plaza, already providing 550 homes to the market. By this time next year, developers project about 700 more housing units will be finished, the plan being for Woodin Creek Village to eventually add about 1,000 homes total to the city.
like the city of Woodinville itself, Woodin Creek Village is a luxury apartment community that aims to capitalize on Woodinville’s expanding winemaking reputation by offering high-end restaurants and a European-style “Wine Alley” featuring multiple tasting rooms and storefronts dedicated to attracting tourist foot traffic. This denser, pedestrian-focused design offers a nice contrast to the existing Tourist District located on the outskirts of town where large wine estates such as Chateau St. Michelle and rows of tasting rooms located in strip malls encourage travel by car or bike instead.
However, just outside of Woodin Creek Village, echoes of the city’s past still remain. Juxtaposed to the new and shiny embodiment of the future of Woodinville, there sits an old and faded, easily overlooked office park. Having talked to many clients and friends (many of whom are tenured denizens of the area), this boundary is a reminder for the locals of just how much this area has grown since the days when it was almost more common to see horse trails alongside the road than sidewalks. And although there are no currently posted plans for construction, it is unlikely that the area will remain as it is now considering the trajectory the city finds itself in.
The Schoolhouse District
The next development set to finish and continue the trend of Woodinville’s Downtown transformation is the Schoolhouse District. District Flats, the primary apartment community in the development, has introduced 264 new homes and an assortment of commercial spaces to the block.
One noteworthy amenity of the Schoolhouse District is its YMCA Early Learning Center, which connects out to the public playfields. These family-friendly provisions are part of the City of Woodinville’s Civic Campus Project, which is part of a public-private partnership that has been in development for over 15 years. In keeping with the theme of developments aiming to capitalize on making Woodinville a wine destination, the Schoolhouse District has its own pedestrianized wine walk.
The north end of District Flats borders NE 175th Street, the main artery of Woodinville’s traffic. Where across the way a US Bank and strip mall currently reside, but that won’t be the case for much longer. Eastrail Flats, which is being redeveloped by the same developer that created District Flats, MainStreet Property Group, will replace the existing structures. In upcoming years the development, named after the 42-mile pedestrian and bike trail that stretches to Bellevue and Renton located just north of the project, will provide an estimated 206 apartments and 63 townhomes.
The Garden District
Despite all of this redevelopment going on along the main drag, it’s the future Garden District, which will also be constructed along NE 175th Street, that has garnered the most discussion. Located on the same site that Molbak’s Garden & Home, a Woodinville institution, currently resides – this future 19-acre development is going to unfold over five phases, creating a planned 1,200 homes, 400,000 square feet of commercial space, a new Molbak’s garden store, and two acres of green space, some of which will include gardens managed by Molbak’s.
The Garden District has been a long time in the making. Back in 2008, the Molbak family sold their land to Green Partners LLC, which has connections to an investment firm associated with Bill Gates. Since then, Molbak’s has continued to operate on the site. Foloowing the change in ownership, the UW Green Futures Lab contributed a community visioning and planning process for the site; these design alternatives created by UW students will be used to inform the final site design. Currently, phase one of the Molbak project is slated to include 220 apartments and 250,000 square feet of retail space constructed over underground parking garages. No information currently exists on the Garden District’s other phases.
Harvest
Although this one won’t be in the Downtown District, one final major development effort has been making headway in Woodinville. The 19.5-acre Harvest development, located in the Tourist District where most of the city’s tasting rooms are concentrated, will include a four-star 165-room Marriott Signature hotel and spa (the Somm), rental and purchasable housing, and commercial space. The complex is being constructed on a long-standing vacant lot across from the City’s Northshore Athletic Fields, right off of the first round-a-bout heading out of town. According to statements from the Mayor’s Office, the future development has already benefitted the area with the creation of sidewalks, public parking, and road repair that were greatly needed. According to its master plan, Harvest will eventually include over 400 luxury townhomes and apartments.
Although Woodinville isn’t quite yet nationally recognized for being the wine destination we know it to be, the city continues to sprint full speed into a future where the once unsuspecting town holds that title. With thousands of new housing units and luxury amenities on the way, Woodinville continues to give off strong signals that investors have faith in the future of the market and the city council’s marketing goals – a great sign for homeowners in the area. Now the balancing act is simply a question of how the local governance will provide the infrastructure needed for our seemingly ever-growing city.
Interested in working with trusted real estate advisors that are up to date on what’s happening in the market on both a local and national level? Contact us today!
Brenden Covington
Trusted Real Estate Advisor
Windermere Real Estate/HLC
13901 NE 175th St, Suite 100 | Woodinville, WA 98072
Cell 206.617.4879 | Email [email protected]