Bellevue Central packs in big names | Lease states REI, Trader Joe’s, HomeGoods to be tenants

KG Investment Management’s Bellevue Central Shopping Center has room for three retailers, which will be REI, Trader Joe’s and a HomeGoods furnishing store, according to a lease agreement filed in King County.

KG Investment Management’s Bellevue Central Shopping Center has room for three retailers, which will be REI, Trader Joe’s and a HomeGoods furnishing store, according to a lease agreement filed in King County.

KG Investment reported a $35.8 million sale of three parcels on 116th Avenue Northeast — including the shopping center site at 316 116th — to Bellevue 116th Avenue LLC in Delaware in August 2009. The old Dodge of Bellevue dealership building is currently on the site.

Bellevue 116th entered into a lease with Homegoods — 10 years with four five-year extension options — on Feb. 27, the furniture store securing 22,017 square feet of the 74,360-square-foot shopping center.

The shopping center is located on the southeast corner of Northeast Fourth Street and 116th Avenue Northeast.

The lease states another 12,241 square feet of shopping center space will be for a Trader Joe’s grocery store, which would be located with HomeGoods on the ground floor. Another 40,000 square feet on the second level of the two-story center would be for REI, according to the lease.

KG Investment Management’s design for construction of the shopping center has been approved by the city and a building permit is under review.

Bellevue Central will have access from 116th, leading to a parking structure to the east, but motorists will also access the center on the newly constructed Northeast Fourth extension via two driveways leading to the top and bottom levels of a two-story garage. The garage is expected to provide 309 parking stalls.

The extension of Fourth from 116th to 120th avenues northeast by the city is expected to be be completed this fall.

A pedestrian plaza is planned for the southwest corner of the property, as well as stairway access to the retail center from the sidewalk along Northeast Fourth.

The city council cleared the way for the project by amending its land use code to allow larger structures in the Wilburton area and rezoning Bellevue 116th parcels along 116th, which occurred last year when Target had plans to construct a new three-story retail store — the company later pulled out.

The city needed portions of the property and Best Buy’s to complete its Fourth Street extension. The city also paid $12.84 million and $6.2 million for the Best Buy and LLC properties, respectively, in a settlement last year.

Andrew Coates, vice president of investment and development for KG, did not return phone calls seeking comment about this project.