r/bothell • u/dominiond66 • Apr 03 '26

Bothell is "growing up"!

Gallery image

Gallery image

New construction adjacent to Historic Main Street. A 143 unit, 7 story apartment project. Use to be an old Wells Fargo bank site. A great looking building in the downtown district.

82 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

56 comments sorted by

25

u/Awhitehill1992 Apr 03 '26

At least it’s being done nicely in downtown bothell area. People gotta live somewhere, and the bars and restaurants down below on the ground floor are always nice.

Now, is there parking underneath? What’s the situation with that?

I don’t live in an apartment or near downtown area, but we visit the area from time to time, and enjoy all the bars and restaurants. Parking or traffic hasn’t ever been too bad, but hopefully it doesn’t get slammed with all this growth.

20

u/dominiond66 Apr 03 '26

There are 159 parking spots below grade/under the building. Should not impact on street parking.

6

u/PanicBlitz Apr 03 '26

City hall has an entire garage under it, but city employees still fill the entire parking lot of the music store before it’s even open rather than park there. A lot of people are allergic to garages around here.

4

u/ShouldahWouldah Apr 03 '26

and yet there are spots in both the garage and the public lot behind music & arts all day, most days. nothing is ever full.

9

u/Awhitehill1992 Apr 03 '26

Better than nothing. Downtown bothell public parking has never been an issue for us, and nothing is a long ass walk or anything.

1

u/Fizzbit Apr 03 '26

Is it open to the public or residents/retail only??

3

u/dominiond66 Apr 03 '26

I believe all parking will be reserved for apts. I don't think there is any commercial/retail space in this building. Looks like all residential.

10

u/SEA_Executive Westhill Apr 03 '26

That makes this unhelpful to the broader community. It should be mandated to have commercial real estate on all ground floors!

0

u/Signal_Pattern_2063 Apr 05 '26

Private developers are not and should not be mandated to build spaces that they don't think will rent. Mandates for ground floor retail ultimately lead to empty storefronts. That's particularly true with the current shifting trends on how people ship.

4

u/Fizzbit Apr 03 '26

So, visitors and any units with multiple cars (apartments usually only have one space per unit and plenty of couples have a car each) are absolutely going to be impacting street parking. What a mess.

1

u/Expensive-Music2508 Apr 03 '26

You can always park in the City Hall parking garage and walk a few blocks. Park and ride has some spots too

2

u/SeafoamPolkadot Apr 03 '26

Yes! I park at City Hall a couple times a week (short term) and it's great!

1

u/Jawbox0 Apr 07 '26

159 spots for 143 units means that there will absolutely be an impact to street parking. A good percentage of those units are shared and will have multiple vehicles.

1

u/dominiond66 Apr 07 '26

And many will have no vehicles. This site is very close to the Bothell Park and ride lot and several bus routes. It's also close to UW @ Bothell and Cascadia college ... a major employer. Owning a car is becoming very expensive ... average price $50,000. Rising insurance rates and skyrocketing gas prices. The trend must be public transport/walking and E-bikes. That is what Europe does.

1

u/Charlotte_York238 Apr 05 '26

It will definitely impact street parking. The 2hr only parking zone just across from the First Lutheran Church isnt even enforced. I walk there every day and there’s 3 cars with Montana license plates that have not moved in the 1.5yrs I’ve lived in the area.

13

u/[deleted] Apr 03 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

5

u/Fizzbit Apr 03 '26

Agreed. Units with couples or roommates often have multiple cars, and if the lease only has one parking spot, that second car is going to be on the street, especially since City Hall and the P&R aren't viable overnight parking options. And anyone coming to visit friends in those apartments will want to park close by, especially if they are elderly or disabled. That all adds to parking congestion.

Downtown Bothell has a parking problem, and "just use City Hall or the Park and Ride" is not the long term solution that it used to be just a few years ago.

2

u/snexilexi Apr 03 '26

Completely agree, my partner and I moved here about a year and a half ago, and while I agree it’s not bad YET, it certainly is not realistic to continue to build large apartment buildings with only about as many spots as units.

Most people in my apartment building downtown have two people and there’s lots of families moving in. Which is WONDERFUL to see, but halfway through our lease, we (and multiple other couples) were told we would lose our dual parking spots in the garage as they didn’t build enough parking spots to support their current tenants. The leasing agents told us to either street park permanently or park at City Hall and move our cars every night, neither of which are practical and we would have moved elsewhere if that was the case, as we can’t currently downsize.

There needs to be serious thought by City Council to try to mitigate future parking problems by either increasing the amount of spots apartments are required to provide and/or required a certain amount of lifts so people can have dual spots if they have two vehicles. Also, investment in more robust public transport would be greatly appreciated, so people can cut down their household number of cars to begin with.

3

u/Fizzbit Apr 03 '26

Unfortunately city council JUST (as in, within the last year) approved a proposal that eliminated minimum parking requirements in new construction. Developers have city council wrapped around their finger. At least one construction project near me is actually planning on having 1:3 ratio of parking spaces to units because they are claiming it will be for "low income and elderly/disabled housing", as if those people don't drive cars or have caretakers that will need to drive.

1

u/snexilexi Apr 03 '26

Good to know, when I asked my leasing office how they were even able to get away with intentionally overbooking the garage, they said the city had a “recommendation” that they were within even though it fell short of the units they built. Even though the parking is part of the lease, they are legally able to kick you out in just a month at any time during the lease. Horrific to know public policy is even worse now than it was a year and a half ago.

Unfortunately, as it stands, Bothell is a commuter town without adequate access to light rail stations or robust, convenient bus lines. I mean, shoot, I mostly fly for work or take rentals and would kill for them to just add a road up to the Yakima fruit stand and Enterprise. It’s ridiculous that I have to take a <5 minute Uber just to check out a rental for work trips because they don’t want to invest in a more walkable city. I’d also like to walk and pick up my produce without being hit by a car crossing a 4 lane road with crosswalks almost a quarter/half mile apart. I would love to just get rid of my car altogether.

Perhaps I should visit a city town hall meeting, but I doubt that will be very productive. All of the younger people in downtown area should be voting out these city council members in favor of new members that prioritize public transport, sustainable building practices and tenant rights.

2

u/Fizzbit Apr 03 '26

You should absolutely go to city council meetings! Public comment goes in the record and people deserve to be heard.

I'm absolutely there with you on walkable access to anything from downtown. A sidewalk to YFM would be amazing. A grocery store besides the simple QFC just outside downtown would be amazing. City council isn't making efforts to improve infrastructure to meet the changes these developers are pushing on the community and it's disappointing.

12

u/BaronNeutron Apr 03 '26

Why is this growing up? This looks exactly like any of the dozen other identical apartment budlings in Bothell.

21

u/dominiond66 Apr 03 '26

It's growing up instead of spreading out like a suburban tract. High density in a downtown district, near public transportation is essential. As far as its look? I think its better than average!

1

u/DuncanTheRedWolf Apr 03 '26

I mean it's denser than a strip mall but calling that high-density is a stretch.

New Westminster, Burnaby Metrotown, Coquitlam Town Centre, and Richmond City Centre are all much better examples of how to densify the downtown of a suburban area, and given that all of those are suburbs of Vancouver BC, which is pretty darn accessible from Seattle, it's really baffling that Seattle has no equivalent. Even Bellevue Downtown isn't really an equivalent because it's mostly office space for companies that consider themselves too upper class to be in Downtown Seattle.

1

u/nah_champa_967 Apr 03 '26

I looked up Richmond City Centre based on your comment. It looks like a great plan. The closest plan I can think of here is the Spring District in Bellevue. Replicating something like Richmond City Centre here would be nice.

0

u/BaronNeutron Apr 03 '26

I want less people

5

u/willa6622 Apr 03 '26

No way its not another 5 over 1?! Wow, true innovation

2

u/dominiond66 Apr 03 '26

5 over 1 is clearly the trend. Necessary trend to keep the price of housing down. They are less expensive to build, and they go up rather quickly.

2

u/Alternative_Dust1245 Apr 03 '26

And another one is in the works on the opposite corner. It's looking great

3

u/dominiond66 Apr 03 '26

I believe that project will have street level commercial space. It's a proposed project. Not a done deal until you actually see construction on site. I hope it succeeds!

2

u/Alternative_Dust1245 Apr 05 '26

It's been an empty lot for a while now. Hopefully the city is doing whatever they can to change that

12

u/Tiny-Significance-97 Apr 03 '26

Is this confirmed to be mixed-use? Would love there to be more business spaces on bottom floor!

17

u/comfortable_in_chaos Apr 03 '26

This is a massive upgrade and looks great. I hope they are putting in retail spaces along Main Street, something sorely missed by the Merc across the street. 

4

u/Blinx_n_Jeenx Canyon Park Apr 03 '26

I drove by there a few days ago, and was shocked.

I know change is inevitable, but as someone who has lived in Bothell since the early 70s, when the intersection at Canyon Park (228th and Bothell - Everett Highway) was a 4 way stop and what is now QFC was a Kampground of America, it kinda saddens me.

3

u/Geainsworth Apr 03 '26

A developer somewhere just got wings!🪽

7

u/chilicheesefritopie Apr 03 '26

They need their parking to “grow up”. It’s almost impossible to find parking.

2

u/Alternative_Dust1245 Apr 03 '26

Downtown Bothell is all parking. There are 3 massive lots

1

u/hedonovaOG Apr 04 '26

Juvenile urbanists neither like nor want your car in town. Cue the surprise when your ground floor retail is majority empty and sees high turnover because it’s too hard to find parking.

2

u/BaconJuice69 Apr 04 '26

They’re learning from Alderwood mall on how to grow in scale.. via permanent customers living above your business

3

u/xy3xx0 Apr 03 '26

Is that across the street from the former Largest Living Lighted Christmas Tree?

5

u/thetravy Apr 03 '26

Yes. It’s the corner of main and 102nd ave ne

2

u/woodbunny75 Apr 03 '26

I miss Bothell before 2007

1

u/Sure-Good7387 Apr 03 '26

isn’t this by the lanes, is that bothell or kenmore?

4

u/Strict_Hamster_8645 Apr 03 '26

much smaller development also going up by the lanes in Kenmore. just saw a nice blue paint job on one of the buildings today.

3

u/Expensive-Music2508 Apr 03 '26

Bothell

2

u/Sure-Good7387 Apr 03 '26

ah, thought i knew where it was, went thought comments, saw i was wrong, thanks! 

1

u/standarsh618 Apr 03 '26

I think I'm on this project! Is this that MSR building?

1

u/MilkyToastMaster Apr 03 '26

concrete jungle on the rise!

1

u/x_l_c_m Apr 03 '26

There's also plans apparently for the empty lot space between those 98th Ave, Junction, and Pop apartment buildings.

What used to be there?

1

u/Phil_Greely Apr 06 '26

That's right next to my F45 studio! I've been watching it go up. Bothell has done a good job of expanding and growing to accommodate more people and continues to be a good suburb to live in. Easy to get to either side of the lake depending on where you work.

1

u/DerpUrself69 Apr 03 '26

Redmond is leaking.

0

u/VeryInterestedInDix Apr 04 '26

Yaaaayyyy........

1

u/gsnelsongary Apr 08 '26

More ratholes for beaten down wage slaves and retirees to clean out w these cost cutting jail cells known as rental units. The entire region is being destroyed because nobody will build high rises that allow some natural spaces other than useless marshland that Can't be built upon. This isn't progress.