Putting the park in park-and-ride near Northgate mall

Redevelopment of the Northgate area is picking up momentum.

A 3.75-acre park-and-ride lot north of Northgate Mall will become a city park under a deal the Seattle City Council and King County Council approved Monday. The city will buy the property from the county for $9.5 million in a deal that will close in 2008.

The city and a commercial developer, meanwhile, said they will break ground June 7 on a multiuse project south of the mall. The city will bring an underground stretch of Thornton Creek back into the daylight, while developers will build more than 500 apartments and condominiums, a 16-screen movie theater and other retail space.

And the owners of Northgate Mall, Indianapolis-based Simon Property Group, are "ready to proceed" with construction of a parking garage that is part of the plan for transforming the traditional, enclosed mall into an indoor-outdoor "lifestyle center," the County Council staff told council members.

Simon Property officials could not be reached for comment Monday.

Thornton Place, the project south of the mall, is being developed by Lorig Associates and Stellar International. Senior housing will be developed by ERA Care.

"This is going to be a part of the city that over the next five years is going to see the most dramatic transformation of any neighborhood in the city," said Marianne Bichsel, spokeswoman for Mayor Greg Nickels.

"This has been basically a mall with a sea of asphalt next to it," Bichsel said. "You've already seen one side of it — the entrance changed and the community center and library. Now you're going to see that south side totally change."

The County Council on Monday approved a package of ordinances that will sell the park-and-ride lot to the city and replace the lost parking there with spaces leased in parking garages being privately developed at the mall and Thornton Place.

Those long-term leases will consolidate commuter parking at the existing transit center south of Northgate and will boost the total number of parking spaces in the area from 1,412 to 1,491 by 2008. A County Council staff analysis said the county would save $4.5 million over the 20 years of the Northgate garage lease and 40 years of the Thornton Place lease.

"It does show the ability of the city and the county to work together to achieve the dream of green space in a city location," said Bob Ferguson, chairman of the County Council's capital-budget committee.

Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105 or kervin@seattletimes.com