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Chinese group lays out early plans for big downtown Bellevue property

The head of Plus Investment USA on Monday outlined plans for a large mixed-use development in downtown Bellevue that he said will include two condominium high-rises.

Plus Investment USA CEO Kevin Corbett said the working name of the half-block project is International Plaza. It's on the south side of Northeast Eighth Street, between 108th and 110th avenues, with Bellevue First Congregational Church occupying the west part of the property.

"Current massing contemplates several mixed-use towers [with] the first phase including two 43-story condominium towers above a retail podium..," Corbett wrote in an email. If plans move ahead, this will be the largest for-sale residential project in downtown Bellevue since another two-high-rise project called Bellevue Towers started construction nine years ago.

Like some other big condo developments in the Puget Sound region, Bellevue Towers struggled, with the developer turning over 420 unsold units to the project lender in 2010. The lender cut prices by 30 percent, and all of the 539 condos eventually were sold.

Plus Investment USA is the local real estate arm of Hong Kong-based Plus Investment. The company paid $30 million for the church property 14 months ago, and followed that with the $45.9 million acquisition of the land on the east end of the block. Beacon Capital Partners, which sold the land, had plans to build a 24-story office tower on part of the property and an 18-story office on the other.

Corbett said the Puget Sound area's condo market is making a comeback as apartment rents are rising to the point where it makes sense to build condos.
"Bellevue is arriving as a gateway," Corbett said. "It's no longer a suburb to Seattle."

Plus Investment USA will target "local buyers and global citizens alike" as prospective condo buyers, Corbett said.
He added that other uses at International Plaza are to be determined. Office buildings and hospitality are possible future uses. The goal, he said, is to build the project this decade.

"We're taking a 2020 vision of this development based upon market fundamentals..," Corbett said, adding that "Plus seeks to develop iconic architecture in its skyline, which will be explored with the city of Bellevue..."

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