Bellevue buys land with eye to future

Bellevue will pay $17.5 million for 4.3 acres of land that could serve as a future transit corridor over Interstate 405 and possibly a temporary home for Bellevue District Court.

The purchase, authorized by the City Council on Monday night, supports city plans to extend Northeast Sixth Street across the freeway, linking the downtown Bellevue Transit Center with the east side of the city. The land also could be used for Metro Transit bus layovers, City Manager Steve Sarkozy said Wednesday.

Two two-story office buildings are currently on the Lincoln Center site property at 555 116th Ave. N.E. Tenants in the 70,000 square feet of office space will be allowed to stay, providing revenues to repay bonds that will finance the city's purchase of the property, according to city officials. The seller is Kent Central LLC.

City plans for improving downtown mobility include extending Northeast Sixth Street east from downtown across I-405 to 120th Avenue Northeast.

Sound Transit also is eyeing Northeast Sixth Street as a possible alignment for a passenger light-rail line between downtown Bellevue and the Overlake area if the agency puts a transit-funding package before voters in November.

That alignment is consistent with the city's proposed Bel-Red land-use plan that calls for a high-capacity transit corridor that would go north from the a Northeast Sixth Street bridge to a new boulevard along Northeast 15th and 16th streets.

The city's purchase of Lincoln Center also could provide a new home for Bellevue District Court, part of the King County District Court system, if the court moves out of its current home in a former elementary school in Surrey Downs Park.

The City Council is contemplating putting a levy of about $40 million before voters in November that would include, among other projects, replacement of the aging courthouse with a community center and improved ballfields at Surrey Downs Park on 112th Avenue Southeast.

Keith Ervin: 206-464-2105