Overview

Kirkland Urban was a large-scale renovation and alteration of the Kirkland Parkplace development. Originally called "Parkplace," A 1.13-million-square-foot, mixed-use development covering 12 acres, Kirkland Urban consisted of four large buildings, erected between 2016 and 2019. Its co-developers were Talon Private Capital and Ryan Companies US, Incorporated, who commissioned architectural design work from the Seattle firm of CollinsWoerman.

The developers hoped to build office space for high-tech companies for whom employees worked long hours and didn't have time to commuite long distances to buy groceries or get dry cleaning. The idea was to combine work and residential living spaces in close proximity with service amenities nearby, as well. Developers of Kirkland Urban said this about their undertaking: "Kirkland Urban is built around the 18-hour day — where life doesn’t stop before, during, or after work. Must-have retail plays a big part in that around-the-clock lifestyle, encouraging interaction, connection, and opportunity.Workers, residents, and visitors will have an anchor supermarket and a well-curated shopping experience at their doorstep, with a movie theater, restaurants, and bars. Beyond Kirkland Urban, a whole retail community awaits — with over 50 distinctive outlets in the immediate area." (See Kirkland Urban.com, "About the Project," accessed 09/06/2018.) The high-tech firms Tableau Software and Wave Broadband purchased leases to office space early in the project's development, and Google was rumored to be interested in locating more cloud-computing engineers there, as well, in 08/2018.

Building History

The complex consisted of two office towers, Urban Central and Urban North, a commercial center and a 185-unit residential tower with 1-bedroom, 2-bedroom and townhouse floorplans.

According to advertising put out by its developers: "Future residents, visitors and employees will have immediate access to Peter Kirk Park on the west edge of the property, as well as the civic campus that includes the Kirkland Library, the Community Center, Senior Center, Teen Union and Kirkland Performance Center. The ‘Uptown’ name is suggestive of the graded elevation that results in the position of the apartment structures overlooking Kirkland’s ‘downtown’ and waterfront." (See Kathy Jalivay, Kirkland Urban.com, "News," published 06/14/2018, accessed 09/06/2018.)

Prior to opening, the development team had obtained a lease with Wave Broadband to lease 88,000 square feet of space in the complex's Urban Central office building. Wave chose to occupy the tower's top three floors. Tableau Software signed a lease for 92,000 square feet in the Urban North Building. Tenants of the retail portion of the project included a 50,000-square-foot QFC Supermarket, Heavy Restaurant Group and Evergreens Salads, Bright Horizons daycare, and Home Street Bank.

Building Notes

As conceived of in 2018, the architects noted the scale of Kirkland Urban: "The program currently calls for 650,000 sf of office space, 180,000 sf of retail, 300,000 sf of residential and 2,400 stalls of structured parking. Currently in the permitting process, the project is planned to be built out in three phases over seven and a half years." (See Collins Woerman.com. "Kirkland Urban," accessed 09/06/2018.)

PCAD id: 22319