Leading the largest municipal downtown project in the state, the city of Bothell will soon hit upon the two-year anniversary of the official April 2010 groundbreaking and is reporting that it’s on target for reaching the $650 million private investment goal.

Based on projections from private developers and Building Code Council valuations for square foot, the city anticipates that by the close of this year both projects under way and projects proposed combined will total an estimated $207 million dollars of private investment in the downtown planning area.

“After collecting information from committed developers, we are anticipating new development in the pipeline to total around $207 million,” said Bob Stowe, Bothell city manager. “That is one-third of our $650 million, 25-year private-investment goal for the downtown subarea.”

“The investments are important, but what is even more important is that the community’s vision is becoming a reality,” said Mayor Mark Lamb. “What we are seeing now is the implementation of a multi-year planning effort to redevelop downtown with new residential, retail, office, mixed-use and an expanded park system. The citizens showed a tremendous amount of visionary leadership when they developed the revitalization plan for downtown and that vision is yielding results.”

Developers of the under way and proposed projects include MainStreet Properties, Wiedner Apartment Homes, Boulevard Place Associates, McMenamins and more. In all, the projects add up to an estimated 1,500 units of new downtown housing and more than 144,000 square feet of commercial space.

Over the past two years, the city has broken ground on $89 million in fully-funded projects as part of the total $150 million in planned infrastructure improvements for downtown.

“This has all been accomplished without raising taxes during some of the most economically challenging times our nation, state and city have ever seen,” said Lamb.