Welcome to Riverside Drive

Posted on 26. Nov, 2009 by nevonnemcdaniels in News

Wenatchee’s newest street sets the stage for continued waterfront development

Street lights, roundabouts and lots of curves

The city of Wenatchee’s $9.8 million Riverside Drive runs north from the foot of Fifth Street to Ninth Street, connecting to Walla Walla Avenue.

The street was purposely designed to slow traffic, and contains the city’s first two roundabouts — one at Fifth Street and the other on the street leading to the Linden Tree entrance to the Apple Capital Loop Trail.

Planning for the street began in 2004 with the city’s Waterfront Sub-area Plan. Riverside Drive was a major component of that plan, needed to open the area to development.

After securing $4,882,039 in funding from the Washington State Transportation Improvement Board, the city hit a snag in negotiations with Riverfront Center property owners in January over the value of a .24-acre section of parking lot. The city used a “friendly condemnation” process to allow the roadwork to move forward, and paid $283,900 for the land in May, but the final sales price of the property will be determined at a later date in court.

Actual construction started March 17, and will finish in November.

Ferndale, Wash.-based Jansen Inc. was chosen as contractor.

The city celebrated with a ribbon-cutting event on Oct. 15, honoring those involved in turning the idea into reality.

Wenatchee Mayor Dennis Johnson, Rep. Mike Armstrong and Sen. Linda Evans-Parlette cut the ribbon on the new Riverside Drive on Oct. 15, with encouragement from some of those who helped fund and build Wenatchee’s new waterfront road. NEVONNE MCDANIELS/WBJ

In the words of Steve King, city of Wenatchee’s director of public works:

Wenatchee Public Works Director Steve King

From a staff perspective, when the community and city council and mayor say to build a project, it’s our job to get it done.

Sometimes projects are enjoyable and sometimes they’re difficult but this has been a very enjoyable project to work on. I’d like to recognize members of the team that helped get this done:

From RH2 Engineering, Karen Kornher and Randy Asplund, Erik Howe and Rebecca Carter. RH2 was hired back when the project started and did a road planning study. RH2 also did the design and construction management of it.

Also I want to thank the private property owners that worked with us through the process of negotiating the LID and they also assisted us through the construction of the project.
Warren Davis and Kris Campbell from Kamcon Development LLC. The Island View homeowners and tenants. Ken Blodgett and Greg Thompson from BBP One LLC. Bob Fries. John McQuaig. Riverfront Center tenants. Russ Lytle and Don McGraw from Columbia Colstor.
And we really appreciated TIB’s involvement with this project. It was great to work with them.

What you see is only about a third of the project. There’s a lot of infrastructure under this road that will support the new development. Some of that infrastructure is the PUD’s.
From the PUD, Andrew Wendell, Chad Rissman, and Denny Clark. Verizon, Charter and Cascade Natural Gas also put in infrastructure for the development of these properties.
Grant Jansen and Cal Vanderpool of Jansen Inc. have been amazing contractors to work with. These guys have worked really hard. They still have a month left in their contract and schedule and they are nearly complete. They’ve done a great job.

Other contractors on the job were Matt Rumble of Curb Appeal, Mitchell Paving, Premier Landscaping, NW Geodimensions, Asphalt Print & Design, All Seasons Contracting, Northeast Electric and Hammond Collier Wade Livingstone.

Steve Gorcester, director of the state Transportation Improvement Board in Olympia, warms up the crowd before presenting a Riverside Drive project completion plaque to Rep. Mike Armstrong, Sen. Linda Evans-Parlette and Wenatchee Mayor Dennis Johnson on Oct. 15. NEVONNE MCDANIELS/WBJ

In the words of Steve Gorcester, state Transportation Improvement Board director:

Steve Gorcester, state Transportation Improvement Board director

The TIB is thrilled to bring $4.9 million of your gas tax back to the city of Wenatchee.

Since that’s the largest single TIB investment in the city of Wenatchee there might have been a little Seattle money that snuck in there too. Let’s not tell them.

We’ve been involved in almost 2,000 transportation projects across the state in my tenure in this agency and every project says something a little different to me.

One of the things about this project that I noticed and I think is important to remind people is that infrastructure does not automatically cause organized growth. But it’s impossible to have orderly growth without it.

So when this project was brought to me by Allison [Williams] I immediately thought, now that’s a TIB project. In fact it reminded me of something my dad used to say — and I don’t know if your dad gave you kernels of urban planning wisdom, but mine did — and one of the things he always used to say was that waterfront should be public, and it should enrich the community.

And on that map sitting on the table in my office I saw waterfront that was public enriching the community. I wanted a part of this project. We wanted to see this project done. I’m pleased and proud that the state was able to help you do that.

There is a lot of demand for 3 cents of the state gas tax in Olympia. Don’t think for a second there aren’t other takers for that money. If our legislators were not convinced that some of it needed to be invested back in local communities we would not be running these programs.

Paving the way

The completion of Wenatchee’s Riverside Drive helps pave the way for several new developments along Wenatchee’s waterfront.

Ted Mischaikov has proposed a $2.4 million Pybus Public Market on the former Morse Steel property at the foot of Orondo Street in Wenatchee. The plan also includes buildings with office and retail space and a potential hotel site.

John McQuaig’s Riverside Landing is a $35 million development plan for the intersection of Fifth Street and Riverside Drive, in the area that includes the city’s old ice arena. The project includes five new buildings. When McQuaig’s plan is fully constructed, it will add 167,000 square feet of new buildings with approximately 15,000 to 20,000 square feet worth of retail space on the ground floor.

Phase one of his new plan — a $5 million retail, office and residential condo building next to the old ice arena  — could get under way early next year.

The hope is other development proposals will follow as Riverside Drive, and Walla Walla Avenue, which was rebuilt in 2007, open the way for even more waterfront opportunities.

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