Construction to begin next year on 17,000 square feet of shops and restaurants at Shoreline Place

Shoreline Place vision

Merlone Geier Partners revealed plans Wednesday for Shoreline Place, a vibrant mixed-use development at the former Sears Property near North 160th Street and Aurora Ave North in Shoreline.

The development will take shape in four phases over more than a decade, featuring 90,000 SF of shops and dining options, 1,300 apartment homes that may eventually include condos, green space including a dog park and a large community park called the Town Green, and connections to Metro’s E Line and the Interurban Trail.

  

“Our plan is directly tied to the vision and environmental approvals the City prescribed in its 2015 Community Renewal Area Plan for Aurora Square,” said Jamas Gwilliam, Vice President for Development at Merlone Geier Partners. “Equally important, it’s also reflective of input we sought from area residents over the last year.”

Phase 1  2019 - 2022

The first phase of development, slated for construction next year, is 17,000 SF of shops and restaurants at the corner of Westminster Avenue, near the Central Market parking lot. 

“We conducted a survey of over 6,000 area residents, and the main things they wanted to see at Shoreline Place were more dining and housing options,” said Gwilliam. “We’re excited to bring those options to the community first.”

Merlone Geier released a video and artist renderings to better explain all four phases of development. 

The Sears building will remain intact until the third development phase, when it transforms into five-over-one housing and retail, anchored by the large Town Green. The Town Green will serve as a community gathering and performance area, as well as the future permanent home of the Shoreline Farmer’s Market.

Sears was new in 1967

Background on the Aurora Square Community Renewal Area

Sears opened in Shoreline in September 1967, and more than 50 years later, the area and the needs of Shoreline residents changed. In 2013, the City of Shoreline designated Aurora Square – the 70+ acre Sears-anchored retail center and several adjacent properties – as a Community Renewal Area (CRA), finding that it qualified as economically blighted with “old, obsolete buildings, defective or inadequate street layout, faulty lot layout, excessive land coverage, diversity of ownership, and connectivity problems”.

As part of the CRA, the City of Shoreline completed an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for site redevelopment in 2015. The EIS evaluated their vision for a development that would include mixed-use commercial and residential development and gathering spaces. Merlone Geier Partners acquired property rights of the former Sears property in 2017, focused on meeting the needs of the current and future community in Shoreline, where there is strong demand for modern retail, better restaurants, and additional types of housing.

Merlone Geier Partners engaged GGLO to design the project.

MGP owns and manages 15 million square feet of retail on the west coast, 4.2 million of which is in the Pacific Northwest including Lynnwood Square, The Town Center at Lake Forest Park, Shoreline Marketplace, Ballinger Village Shopping Center, and Alderwood Plaza. Visit MerloneGeier.com for more information.