For Lacey, Sixth Avenue plan is a work in progress

By Christian Hill | The Olympian • Published July 05, 2008

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The development guidelines identified Sixth Avenue as "the major pedestrian corridor."

About the guidelines

The guidelines were melded into the city's zoning code in 2000.

They encouraged mixed-use development with unique architecture built next to the road, on-street parking and pedestrian amenities such as benches and plazas. The Bell Towne Center, across from Office Depot, became the first new development to embrace the vision when it was completed a year or two later.

One of the key ideas was to realign the western end of Sixth Avenue to create a single entrance to South Sound Center on Sleater-Kinney. The two signalized intersections are close together, a situation traffic engineers said clogged traffic on Sleater-Kinney and raised the potential for collisions. The city then would develop the abandoned half-acre parcel into a plaza featuring a bell tower.

Both changes were intended to draw more people to help reinvigorate the corridor.

In August 2006, however, the city lost a court ruling in its effort to condemn most of the Office Depot parking lot it needed and abandoned the project.

It now is in the midst of a road project to make smaller fixes to Sixth Avenue, Sleater-Kinney and the intersections to improve traffic flow and safety. On-street parking has been added to Sixth Avenue.

Some of the parking serves Sixth Avenue Place, a 103-unit apartment building that tenants began moving into in October.

Kristie Danielsen, the property manager, said the units should be full by August and that about half the tenants are soldiers and airmen.

Nearby work

To the east, construction workers are busy with the four-story Sixth & Woodland Building, which features office space and, like Sixth Avenue Place, ground-floor retail space. Three tenants have signed leases for the office space, with one, Fast Transact, taking the entire top floor, said Nicole Potebnya, commercial real estate manager for The Rants Group. Fast Transact is an Olympia-based company that processes credit-card payments.