On Tuesday, April 21, King County Executive Girmay Zahilay cut the ribbon on Copperleaf Northgate, a seven-story building beside the Northgate Link light rail station that brings 235 income-restricted apartments to the neighborhood. The project occupies roughly one acre of what used to be a King County Metro park-and-ride and includes on-site resident services plus a ground-floor daycare set to open later in 2026. Even as new tenants move in, the future of the remaining five acres next door is still anyone’s guess.
Copperleaf is a joint effort between BRIDGE Housing and Community Roots Housing. According to BRIDGE Housing, King County put in $30 million in transit-oriented development funding and made about one acre of land available under a 75-year lease at $1 per year, a deal valued at roughly $12.85 million. The building has 211 apartments reserved for households earning up to 60% of area median income, plus 24 systems-connected units for households between 30% and 50% AMI. Wellspring Family Services is lined up to provide free support services to residents, and a ground-floor childcare center with adjacent commercial space is scheduled to open late in 2026, the developer says.
“This is the largest investment King County has made in affordable housing,” Zahilay said at the ceremony, praising the site’s transit access and the stability the new homes offer families, according to BRIDGE Housing. Community Roots CEO Colleen Echohawk called Copperleaf the nonprofit’s largest community so far and an “asset” for neighbors who now have front-door access to light rail and regional bus service.
Phase Two Remains in Limbo
For all the fanfare, Metro’s bigger Phase Two plan for the rest of the station-adjacent property is still stuck. As The Urbanist has reported, the remaining roughly five-acre parcel could support upwards of 1,000 homes under current zoning. Instead, it is still serving as commuter parking while officials sort through what comes next. Metro spokesperson Jeff Switzer told The Urbanist that the Phase Two timeline is still in development, leaving the site in a holding pattern for now.
Simon Advances a Market-Rate Phase
Meanwhile, the mall owner is not waiting around. The Seattle Department of Construction & Inspections lists a land-use application for a seven-story, 268-unit apartment building with ground-floor retail at 401 NE Northgate Way, a project that went to a design-review recommendation meeting in late April. Industry reporting has noted that Simon Property Group is moving ahead with multifamily construction on the Northgate campus as part of the long-running mall overhaul, signaling that market-rate and affordable projects are advancing in parallel. The official DCI record spells out the unit count and the public review schedule.
Transit Trade-Offs and Resident Support
To make room for Copperleaf, Metro agreed to trade about 185 park-and-ride spaces for housing, arguing that more people living within walking distance of frequent transit is worth the lost parking. King County Metro has framed Copperleaf as a cornerstone of its transit-oriented development program and says it plans to pursue development on the remaining five acres in the coming years, according to King County Metro. As part of the tenant support package, residents 18 and older will receive free transit passes for up to three years, Community Roots Housing notes.
Copperleaf’s opening shows what can happen when public land and targeted funding are paired with a light rail station. The remaining acres will decide whether Northgate grows into a dense station area or sticks with a patchwork of parking lots and mid-rise buildings. After a decade of paused deals, repeated RFPs and a collapsed 2019 agreement with a private developer, the next moves by Metro, Simon and King County will determine whether the broader site finally lives up to its transit-oriented promise, as The Urbanist has documented.
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