Eastside Business -- Developers Climb Into Crowded Ring -- Bellevue Complex Would Compete For Retail, Entertainment Tenants

Get ready for the glitz, Bellevue.

Butch Gaberman, the man who brought NikeTown and GameWorks to Seattle, has turned his attention to the Eastside.

He is teaming up with Bellevue landowner and developer Gene Horbach to build a glittery fun palace fronting on a full block of downtown Bellevue's busiest street, Northeast Eighth.

The project could set the stage for a battle between two of downtown Seattle's hottest retail developers of recent years.

Jeff Rhodes, developer of Pacific Place now under construction in Seattle, is also developing the $400 million Meydenbauer Place project two blocks east of Horbach's Bellevue property. Meydenbauer would include an expanded Bellevue Convention Center, high-rise office and hotel towers, and retail space.

Rhodes and Gaberman also may be competing for tenants with the $400 million Lincoln Square project planned a block west of Horbach's land by Ian Gillespie's Vancouver, B.C.-based Westbank Group and Lincoln National Life Insurance of Fort Wayne, Ind. That project would include a hotel, office tower, apartment tower and retail shops.

The unnamed project of Horbach and Gaberman could become Bellevue's second entertainment-retail complex. The Bellevue Galleria, under construction two blocks to the south, will have three floors of restaurants, stores, an 11-screen movie theater and a virtual-reality arcade.

Horbach and Gaberman briefed city planners on their preliminary plans Thursday. They anticipate starting construction 18 months from now on about 200,000 square feet of retail space on two to three floors and possibly a 100- to 200-room "boutique hotel" of seven to 15 stories. Areas between stores would be open-air, but covered from rain.

Caroline Robertson, president of the Bellevue Downtown Association, welcomed the possibility of another development on Eighth Street. "That would be a glorious street," she said. "You would have an entertainment Rodeo Drive."

But the city's planning director, Matt Terry, asked, "How many of these big projects can Bellevue absorb? I remain skeptical that all the stuff that's already in can be built." He said Rhodes and Gillespie are "way, way ahead."

Horbach and Gaberman told city officials the project could include a movie theater with up to 24 screens. But Gaberman yesterday appeared to discount the likelihood a theater will be built.

Rhodes said Gaberman "knows his way around" and is capable of developing a successful retail complex. He added that he hopes Gaberman won't go after theaters or other kinds of tenants Rhodes is courting.

Horbach's retail complex is being designed by the Jerde Partnership of Los Angeles in conjunction with G2 Architecture of Seattle. G2 also is designing another building planned by Horbach: the 19-story, 387,000-square-foot Bellevue Technology Tower on the southwest corner of 108th Avenue and Fourth Street.

Keith Ervin's phone message number is 206-515-5632. His e-mail address is: kervin@seattletimes.com