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Eugene Horbach, a developer, acquired the ten-acre, Washington Square parcel over 17 years. He hoped to raise the financing, but could not, and sold his position to the Utah development firm, Wasatch Development, which was set in 2008 to underwrite the $1.6 billion total cost. Wasatch executives traveled to other large-scale condominium developments in Vancouver, BC, Portland, OR, San Diego, CA, and Denver, CO, to gain ideas on the project's direction. Washington Square's first phase was the construction of several new condominium towers, one with 188-units (opening 01/12/2008) and one with around 165 units (to open in 04/2008). (Phase One would see the completion of 353 condo units and 26 town houses costing from $300,000 to $2.6 million.) In a second phase, two towers with 42 and 43 stories each (with 540 condos in total) were to open in late 2008. This project was to cover a 10-acre "superblock" in downtown Bellevue, and was to contain eventually 2.5 million square feet of space, 180,000 of it for retail usage. In 2008, two more towers were slated to accommodate senior housing, one for offices, and a fourth for a hotel. By 07/2009, sales had stalled at the Washington Square buildings opened in early 2008. Of 379 units available, only 171 had been fully purchased. Washington Square was one of several up-scale condo developments to be mentioned in an article by the Seattle Times's Eric Pryne, "Will steep price cuts fill high-end condos?" 07/14/2009, p. A1, A6; this front page real estate article underscored the impact of the 2008 economic collapse on Seattle and Bellevue's upper-end condominium market. In the first phase, only two towers, the West Tower, 24-stories high, and the East Tower, 25-stories tall, were finished. Their addresses were slightly different: the East was located at 10650 NE 9th Place, the West at 10610 NE 9th Place. The architectural firm of CollinsWoerman produced the architectural plans for the East and West Towers, collaborating with Shugart Bates on the interiors and DCI Engineers.

The condominiums and retail businesses were designed to cater to younger employees working at the high-tech companies located on the east side of Lake Washington, including Yahoo, Expedia, and Microsoft.

PCAD id: 10911