FEDERAL WAY, Wash. — When the 7.8-mile Link light rail extension opens in Federal Way, it will be a day decades in the making.
The new station will sit across 320th St from the Commons Mall, which is scheduled for a renovation that will “literally blow the roof off the shopping center,” according to Mayor Jim Ferrell.
“Our downtown is literally transforming before our very eyes,” Ferrell said, “It’s really going to be a real development of our downtown.”
Ferrell says the city expects the area that’s mostly strips malls, retail shops and restaurants to add 11,000 housing units, including apartments, condos, and single-family homes, to be added in the coming years.
That development, combined with being the southern-most stop on the Link for the next decade, will bring up to 30,000 more cars each day. A new road will go through the mall as one of the many changes to make space.
“We want to make sure that we’ve got all the infrastructure necessary to make sure that people can get around,” Ferrell said.
Ferrell envisions “Federal Way going more vertical” around the Link station.
His vision for the area started 14 years ago when Target moved out of a big-box building to the Commons mall across the street. The now-empty lot sits next the the Federal Way Performing Arts and Event Center, sitting more than 30 feet above 320th.
It’s a view that inspires Ferrell to call it the “Acropolis of Federal Way,” a reference to the ancient Greek Parthenon that sits high above Athens.
“I think [it will be] much more center focused,” Ferrell said of Federal Way, “The motto of the City is centered on opportunity. We are really going to be in the center of the Puget Sound Region.”
When the Target moved, the city bought the land, changed some covenants to allow for housing, secured Congressional funding for a town-center square park that will be the first density-oriented development after the Link opens, with around 1,600 units, a mix of apartments to rent and condominiums to buy.
Ferrell says affordable housing is planned adjacent to the Link station and expects some of the several hundred housing units added to the Commons to have an affordability designation as well.
“It’s all about making sure that things are affordable, but it’s also about making sure that there’s a full array of inventory people can choose from,” Ferrell said.
Sound Transit reports the extension was delivered within the $2.5 billion budget. When the extension to the Tacoma Dome is created, a station will be constructed in South Federal Way as well.
However, the progress on that line remains uncertain as the transit agency faces a shortfall of at least $30 bllion.
In recent meetings, board members have been presented with options of reducing stations and reconfiguring designs to cut costs.
The final alignment of the Tacoma Dome Extension has yet to be concretely determined by the Sound Transit board.
“It will happen because it has to happen,” Ferrell said. “Building it out really connects everything together. This is going to be an economic engine in which billions of dollars are being spent now to create this 100-year infrastructure. It’s exciting to see.”
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