Artist’s rendering courtesy of MJR Development
A couple major companies are interested in moving their corporate headquarters to Woodinville Village. Twin mixed-use buildings totaling approximately 100,000 square feet with ground floor retail and two stories of office space are in design review with the City of Woodinville.

“Woodinville Village is moving forward,” said Mike McClure, partner in MJR Development, the firm developing the 24-acre Woodinville Village project at the crossroads of Highway 202 and Woodinville-Redmond Road.

“Internal roads, site work and utilities are all in,” he said. “The first condominiums, we call them ‘The Villas,’ will be ready for move-in in July.”

The 20 condominiums McClure expects to be complete by July are remodeled apartments from the former Redwood Apartments complex, which overlooks the Sammamish River.

“We will have a model unit and a sales center open and buyers can move in as soon as they purchase a unit,” said McClure. “A second bank of 19 (Villa) condominiums will be available for move-in in September. Based on how sales go then, we will start construction on Solera. Solera was our most popular condominium.”

The original plan was to construct Solera first, with a spring 2009 opening date. Because national institutional financing for the condominium portion of the Village was hard to come by, MJR opted to focus on local funding sources at smaller amounts.

MJR notified condominium owners by letter that they would not be meeting their opening date. The company offered refunds or the option to purchase a Villa unit. Owners were told that the project was moving forward, just in a different way.

“We shifted our strategy to start with The Villas,” said McClure.

Staff photo/Ian Gleadle
Construction site of Woodinville Village as it looks today.

Residential, office and retail markets are cyclical. The advantage of a mixed-use development, he said, is that when one market is down, another might be up. He said there was still high interest in office and retail space. Brian Carter Cellars and DeLille Cellars are buying their Village properties and building their own buildings, as opposed to leasing them. Tutta Bella Neapolitan Pizzeria is also converting its lease to a purchase-develop arrangement.

“That will kick off the north end of the Village,” said McClure.

“A couple major local companies are interested in moving their corporate headquarters to Woodinville Village,” he said, though he was not willing to name the companies at this time.

Twin mixed-use buildings totaling approximately 100,000 square feet with ground floor retail and two stories of office space are in design review with the City of Woodinville. Underground parking three blocks long and a block wide will be part of the project.

The Village’s Italian-inspired Hotel Varenna is still on track.

“I really don’t think the hotel will need national institutional funding,” said Developer Patrick McFarlan. “At about $55 million, I expect it to be funded with local money, similar to how Willows Lodge was funded. Institutional funders seek major brands such as a Four Seasons or a Westin in a major downtown center such as San Francisco or Seattle. The funding for Hotel Varenna will come from someone in the Northwest, someone who appreciates a culinary and wine lifestyle, someone who loves the idea of being outside Seattle. I’m more excited today about the project than I was two years ago.

Photo courtesy of Patrick McFarlan/Branded Lodging
This photo represents an example of a culinary amphitheater. Hotel Varenna’s amphitheater will provide easy viewing, the ability to serve food and wine to all participants at their seats, dueling kitchens at the front for competitions and cooking demonstrations, and will be broadcast capable.

“Developing is a process with so many moving parts. There are businesses, individual psyches and municipal interests. Mike McClure is one of the best consensus managers I’ve ever seen in my life. The model that the City of Woodinville created with MJR is what the city needs. It is a long process. Retailers don’t want to be the first (built) in a project. That response is moving closer to Hotel Varenna and I’m good with that. We have been through all of our plans to make sure that our project will be perfect.”

McFarlan said that the hotel interior has been redesigned to create 130 guest rooms plus 10 suites of varying sizes. The restaurant will seat 75; the bar, 50. There will be a 60-seat culinary center with an iron-chef style amphitheatre with dueling kitchens to accommodate cooking competitions and cooking classes.

“There will also be great public spaces for corporate meetings,” said McFarlan. “Hotel Varenna will have the largest ballroom in Woodinville with considerable breakout space. And there will be a great amount of outdoor space for barbeques, weddings and tastings.

The hotel with its culinary / wine theme will allow the ability to incorporate local farmers, chefs and winemakers into our programs. We will take these individuals and put them center stage. When you take a winemaker today and put him in front of a group of people, it’s like putting a rock star on stage.”