Bellingham Ohio Street Redevelopment Plan
Bellingham Department of Economic Development, Bellingham, Washington

We completed property owner surveys, market analysis, development concept plans, economic and financial feasibility analysis, and implementation strategies for a 32 block downtown industrial tract adjacent to Whatcom Creek and the downtown business district for the Bellingham Department of Economic Development. We also conducted workshop sessions with a 9-member task force, interviews with locally interested developers, and a public review session with local property and business owners.

The Ohio Street industrial district had a number of large, disjointed vacant and underutilized properties including former railroad right-of-way that had been abandoned but not redeveloped. On the other hand, aggressive expansion projects were proposed at the high school, along the major arterial road, and about the interchange. Consequently, the city instigated this study to determine market potentials and the land use relationships that should be established in the area.

Our resulting plan reorganized the district road network to eliminate unnecessary cross street conflicts and control traffic between the industrial area and high school and surrounding residential neighborhoods. Our marketing strategy proposed offering the city's public works yard property in the center of the district on a competitive RFP basis for development as a means of packaging a number of disorganized parcels and stimulating market activity.

Based on our plan, the public works facility was successfully redeveloped for an office/business park that included a number of neighboring properties within the district.