Lakewood Towne Center apartment project being revamped. What about the Barnes & Noble?
The City of Lakewood is considering a revised plan for hundreds of new apartments adjacent to Lakewood Towne Center.
Developers of Lakewood Towne Center Apartments have made “significant modifications” in a permit application, originally submitted in February, the city announced Friday.
That plan called for nearly 400 new apartments across two, five-story buildings “with associated site amenities and improvements” on 10.37 acres in the Lakewood Towne Center behind Target.
The new plan calls for 311 market-rate units, with 143 in a five-story building and the other 168 units spread across seven, 3-story “garden-style” buildings, according to the city.
Such a style is generally defined as low-rise buildings accompanied by landscaped grounds.
The new plan calls for more than 40,000 square feet of common open area, 476 on-site parking stalls, “indoor and outdoor amenity areas for tenants and large landscaped buffers,” the city said in its update.
The plans still require demolition and relocation of the existing Barnes & Noble bookstore, 5711 Main St. SW., which was met, along with the initial apartment proposal, with criticism early on from some residents.
The developers noted the bulk of feedback from residents was “in relation to the current culture of the Lakewood Towne Center and the potential loss of Barnes & Noble.”
They added, “Although not a party to the negotiations ongoing with Barnes & Noble, we understand that efforts, unrelated to this project, are being made to relocate the national retailer to another storefront within the Lakewood Towne Center.”
A representative for Lakewood Towne Center owner Kite Realty did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.
According to the new plans submitted by Alliance Residential of Seattle, the revisions aim “to meet the design criteria of the zoning code” as well as address residents’ feedback.
“In response to public comments and interactions with the city’s planning department, our team evaluated numerous options for this project, including different site plans and construction typologies,” the new plans’ narrative stated.
The developers said they were responding to “the community’s request for an expanded buffer between the church and school to the south as well as the backyards of many single-family homeowners to the east.
“The project reduced the height of the buildings along the property boundary while increasing the landscape between the residential communities and its neighbors,” they noted. “The project has added features to make the perimeter street much more pedestrian friendly with additional open space including significantly enhanced landscaping, public benches, and walking paths.”
They noted that as far as parking is concerned, “the project is currently parked with 165 parking stalls above the city’s code requirements. ... The project is intentionally overparked to benefit the future residents in the community while avoiding overcrowding parking within the Lakewood Towne Center.“
The project does not include any commercial space.
“The Lakewood Towne Center currently has approximately 80,000 square feet of available retail space,” according to the project narrative. “Adding more retail space in exchange for more housing units will not bring additional businesses to Lakewood without competing with the current availability existing ... .“
One of the project’s buildings also exceeds code in terms of maximum building length in another code departure, proposed at 180 feet.
City code calls for longest dimension of any building to measure no more than 160 feet.
“This code requirement will result in smaller, less energy-efficient buildings (given the increase in building envelope) with fewer units provided,” the developers wrote.
To submit public comment
The comment period for the proposal runs through Oct. 4. Written comments need to include the permit number (#10185, Project ID #5447) and can be sent to the City of Lakewood Planning and Public Works department at the following:
▪ By mail: Attn: Andrea Bell, City of Lakewood Planning & Public Works, 6000 Main Street SW Lakewood, WA 98499
▪ By email: Andrea Bell, senior planner, Abell@cityoflakewood.us
The project will go before the hearing examiner for review and public hearing at a date still to be announced.
For more details on the proposed plans, go to the City of Lakewood’s online permit dashboard.
This story was originally published September 24, 2024 at 5:30 AM.
