What's Happening in The Spring District?
An update from Wright Runstad & Company's Linda Hoffner
The Spring District is known as the newest urban neighborhood on the Eastside, a vibrant community featuring walkable streets, open spaces and unique art displays. Within the 36-acre district, you'll find modern apartment complexes, a brewpub, ground floor retail and over one million square feet of high-tech office space.
Developer Wright Runstad & Company reached many milestones recently. Just last month they were awarded ‘LEED for Neighborhood Development’ (LEED-ND) certification for mixed-use development, an award focused on sustainable and well-connected neighborhoods.
Linda Hoffner, senior property manager at Wright Runstad & Company, explained the community is designed for people to work, live, play and still feel a connection to Bellevue's downtown core.
Hear more about The Spring District’s 2021 highlights, who's helping build the community and what we can look forward to.
BDA: Congratulations on the LEED certification! What does that mean for the neighborhood?
Hoffner: Achieving LEED for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) is a huge milestone for the project. Throughout each phase of development, the focus has remained targeted on sustainability and environmental stewardship. We thought hard about the community’s ability to access transit, the walkability of the neighborhood and the native plants and trees placement throughout the parks and garden.
BDA: What makes The Spring District stand out as a sustainable neighborhood?
Hoffner: The Spring District is a transit-oriented community. We are centered around Sound Transit’s East Link Extension, which allows easy transportation and mobility accessibility to Downtown Bellevue and beyond.
BDA: Any big accomplishments in 2021?
Hoffner: 2021 was an exciting year for us! Our most memorable accomplishments come from our efforts to bring vibrancy to the neighborhood with events and community gatherings safely. The Spring District, with the help of the City of Bellevue, adopted a food truck pilot program. We drew in people with new food choices like Theos Gyro, Dick’s Burgers, Yumbit and more. It’s a great way to bring new offerings to nearby residents, employees and construction workers.
In the summer, we partnered with the Bellevue Downtown Association and hosted the Bellevue Beats Music Series and the Bellevue Farmers Market. We loved seeing how food and music connected people around town. These events gave us a chance to celebrate the community in small ways.
BDA: What are you looking forward to in 2022?
Hoffner: We recently leased our brewpub ground floor to Bellevue Brewing Company and completed construction on Block 24 leased by Meta. We have roughly two million square feet of high-tech office space left to build.
The creation of The Spring District has been an ongoing effort for nearly 15 years. For this place to start from a cluster of warehouses and become a hub for residential and commercial growth is astonishing.
This project wouldn’t work without the support of the City of Bellevue’s staff and elected officials, the Bellevue Downtown Association, supporters of the Light Rail and others. They all played a part in the creation of building this unique urban neighborhood.
This blog is part of the Heart of Bellevue: our campaign to showcase local businesses while connecting you with stories of activity, creativity and recovery. Find out about our campaign and explore more of what’s happening around Downtown.
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The Spring District
12104 NE District Way
Bellevue, WA 98005
