SMOKEY POINT — Eight new apartment buildings and a senior living center are going up quickly just west of I-5, with 379 units under construction and more to come.
The neighborhood just west of the Lakewood Pointe and Lakewood Crossing shopping centers is a cacophony of construction as workers lay down roofing, pound in nails, scramble up and down ladders or load and unload gravel.
In the coming months, developers plan to finish hundreds of apartments and a new commercial building on the north side of 172nd Street Northeast. Designs also include rerouting 25th Avenue Northeast where it branches off of busy 172nd Street. That would be followed by more construction on the new Smokey Point Town Center and neighboring Vintage at Lakewood.
The Town Center is in its first phase of development, with at least one more phase to come. The project has been in the works for nearly three years, starting with an application to the city of Marysville in 2012. Plans have changed some since then.
Originally, the project was called Lakewood Station and proposed apartments built on top of first-floor commercial space. It’s since been renamed Smokey Point Town Center, with a design that separates the retail and residential buildings.
“It’s more of a horizontal mixed-use rather than vertical mixed-use,” Marysville planning manager Chris Holland said.
Phase one encompasses 182 apartments in eight buildings along with one 95,000-square-foot commercial shell to house a Dick’s Sporting Goods and several other undetermined tenants, Holland said.
The apartments are nearing completion along 25th Avenue, some covered in yellow plastic with windows newly installed and others waiting for a roof to cap the hollow wood shell. Smokey Point Commercial, LLC, is seeking a work permit to start on the commercial building by March, Holland said. The developer also has asked the city to vacate part of 25th Avenue, and a public hearing is scheduled in front of the Marysville City Council at 7 p.m. Feb. 9.
The second phase of the Town Center project includes another eight apartment buildings with about 160 units, along with several more commercial buildings along 172nd Street. That construction likely won’t kick off until the center’s first commercial areas are fully leased, Holland said.
Space at Smokey Point Town Center is listed for lease by First Western Properties, Inc. A company representative declined to give any details about the project or its timeline, citing a confidentiality agreement with Smokey Point Commercial owner Steve Malsam.
Malsam did not return calls seeking comment.
Just down the street from Smokey Point Town Center, the Vintage at Lakewood also is taking shape.
It’s a community for people at least 55 years old. There are 197 one- and two-bedroom apartments going in at 2131 172nd St. NE. Along with the apartments, the project also includes a fitness center, clubhouse and mini-mart, according to The Vintage at Lakewood’s website. The apartments can be rented starting this spring.
Rapid development in Smokey Point has sparked concerns about traffic and safety on 172nd Street, which is also Highway 531. Past the bustling shopping centers, the road turns to two lanes. Traffic often backs up at a railroad crossing and near the Lakewood schools, especially before and after school when buses join the fray.
Rerouting 25th Avenue will move its intersection with 172nd Street farther from the hectic entrance to Lakewood Crossing, Holland said, and a roundabout may be installed along the new roadway.
No other major roadwork is planned at the this point, he said.
Herald writer Chris Winters contributed to this report.
Kari Bray: 425-339-3439, kbray@heraldnet.com
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