One of the area’s largest retail centers now has something else that is much-needed in our region: more housing.
When Alderwood Mall in Lynnwood lost the Sears store, it was left with a lot of unused space, which Katie Bucklew with Avalon Bay Communities says has been turned into 328 apartments with ground floor retail and restaurants just steps from mall doors, “which really hasn’t been done across the country,” Bucklew says, “that starts to create those mixed-use environments, where people can work, they can play, they can live. So this is hopefully the first of many to come.” In fact, it is the first Brookfield Properties mall in the country with residential units on site. It is close to the I-5/I-405 interchange and not far from the Lynnwood Transit Center, which is tentatively scheduled to open in mid-2024 but might be delayed 4-6 months.
Alderwood Mall’s senior general manager, Jerry Irwin, says it’s had to change with the times in the 43 years since it opened, in part, because of the way retail shopping has changed with the advent of online shopping. “We’ve done a great job staying current, and this is just the next generation of redevelopment,” Irwin says, “Having this built-in community to the center has just added so much. We’re very excited, and the project has just taken off.
In addition to the residential units, the lower level of those two buildings will have retail and restaurant space, including a Dave and Busters, which is already open. That section of Alderwood Mall also has new restaurants and retail with more coming, including Fogo de Chão, Paris Baguette and Shake Shack. Brookfield is in negotiations with even more businesses, so it can’t yet say what else will appear there.
And don’t worry about the residents taking up valuable parking spaces during the busy holiday shopping season. They have their own underground garage.
You can learn even more about the changes to Alderwood Mall in the video above.
