New tenants sign leases at Maple Valley Town Square

Work is moving along nicely at Maple Valley Town Square, the future home of Fred Meyer, restaurants, shops and a 10,500 square MultiCare facility that will offer a variety of medical services. Lisa Powell, director of leasing for Bellevue-based Powell Development, said quite a few new tenants have signed on the dotted line since the developer broke ground in April.

By Kris Hill • November 23, 2011 12:53 pm
An overhead site plan for Maple Valley Town Square at Four Corners shows many of the tenants that have signed leases with the property owner.
An overhead site plan for Maple Valley Town Square at Four Corners shows many of the tenants that have signed leases with the property owner.

Work is moving along nicely at Maple Valley Town Square, the future home of Fred Meyer, restaurants, shops and a 10,500 square MultiCare facility that will offer a variety of medical services.

Lisa Powell, director of leasing for Bellevue-based Powell Development, said quite a few new tenants have signed on the dotted line since the developer broke ground in April.

“We have a whole medical corridor,” Powell said. “We have Pinnacle Physical Therapy, Smile Brands… we have BECU, Chase Bank, Sprint, Burger King, Desert Sun and most recently Super Supplements.”

In addition, some other companies from the region have signed leases including The Spot Coffee, a nail salon called Tip Toe Paradise Nails as well as a yogurt shop called The Nutty Squirrel.

“That’s everybody we have officially signed a lease with right now,” Powell said. “We are working with a bunch of others but we can’t reveal them yet.”

Fred Meyer had been interested in locating a store in Maple Valley for a number of years but the city had an ordinance on the books since incorporation that prevented big box stores coming in that had footprints of more than 60,000 square feet.

That’s not an unusual tactic, Powell said, and in other cities such an ordinance has been called ‘The Walmart Clause.’

So, the first step was to get approval of an ordinance that would allow for big box stores, Powell said.

That happened in 2009 after lengthy discussion and deliberation by the city’s Planning Commission and City Council.

Work is expected to be complete on the project in less than a year with business openings planned for March 2012, Powell said.

In addition, there will be a pair of sit-down casual dining spots called Hop Jacks and Farrelli’s Pizza.

Maple Valley Town Square is located on the northeast corner of state Route 169 and Kent Kangley Road.

Fred Meyer alone will bring 250 jobs to Maple Valley, something that city officials point to as Powell Development has been working with John Morris and his family. Morris owns the property and runs TRM Wood Products from the site now. The project has a price tag of $45 million.

“Now that the ground’s been broken and you can see all the activity, people are pretty excited about it,” Powell said. “We’re trying to be active in the community and listen to what they want in the Town Square.”

She explained that the plaza is more than 80 percent leased.

“I would guess we’ll be pretty close to 100 percent leased by the time Fred Meyer is open,” Powell said. “We have great brokers. We’ve been lucky to get some great tenants. It sounds like they’re just trucking along and the city’s been great to work with. It’s been a bit of a learning process on both sides because this is a pretty big project for Maple Valley and we haven’t worked in Maple Valley before but it’s gone pretty well so far.”