Work will begin soon on a mixed-use development hotly anticipated by Sammamish city leaders, after ground broke on the site’s first business on Monday.
At least 60 people attended the groundbreaking for the residential and commercial development anchored by the Metropolitan Market at the corner of Southeast Fourth Street and 228th Avenue Southeast Monday morning.
This is the first commercial retailer to begin construction as part of the city’s long-awaited town center. Planning the town center, located in the geographic heart of the city, officially began in 2006.
Dubbed “The Village,” the nearly 6.5 acre development is slated to open by the end of 2016. It will include a medical office, space for a yet-to-be determined business, 159 apartment units, 383 parking spaces and will mark the seventh Metropolitan Market location.
“It’s nice to be lucky number seven,” said Mayor Tom Vance during his opening remarks. “I know our citizens are eager to shop at the Metropolitan Market.”
Site Planner and Developer Bob Parks said this is TRF Pacific’s 57th development, of which most are anchored by a grocery store.
Parks compared these developments to dental work, in that they will be removing a lot of dirt only to top it with a “crown.”
“Hopefully, this will be a crown, not only on the property, but for the city,” Parks said.
Metropolitan Market co-CEO Todd Korman said people can expect about 2,000 trucks to be hauling dirt from the property this summer.
While construction is a dirty, noisy process, Korman said, crews will do their best to be “good neighbors.”
Former property owner Norbert Woloszyn, who attended the ceremony, said he had mixed feelings about the development, as he and his family had lived on the corner of Southeast Fourth Street for 21 years.
“I’ll miss the place,” Woloszyn said.
Nearby neighbor Cherie Vivolo, 81, who did not attend the groundbreaking said she was not looking forward to the development and the traffic that will likely accompany it. Her house, along Southeast Fourth, is just outside the designated town center area. She says that hasn’t stopped people from trying to buy it from her.
“I told them they can have it when I’m dead,” she said.
