Kirkland Outbids Developers for Church, Turns It Into Kingsgate Community Hub

The City of Kirkland has closed a deal that private housing developers desperately wanted: a 3.3-acre former Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints property at 13220 NE 132nd Street, purchased for $10 million and destined to become a community center for the long-underserved Kingsgate neighborhood. Housing developers had submitted several bids exceeding $10 million for the site, but the church ultimately chose to sell to the city instead.

The building itself is no blank slate. According to the Citizen Portal, the 15,635-square-foot masonry building was constructed in 1989 and includes an 8,000-square-foot gymnasium, a chapel, a kitchen, small classrooms, and 211 parking stalls. City officials say the existing layout means Kirkland can host recreation programs without major structural overhauls, and staff have plans to avoid extensive interior renovations while leaving the building's exterior unaltered, according to reporting from The Real Deal.

The Kirkland City Council voted 7-0 in April to authorize the city manager to pursue the property, submitting both a letter of intent to buy and a separate letter arguing why the municipality should be the preferred purchaser. The move was meant to address facility deficits identified in the city's 2022 Parks, Recreation and Open Space plan, per the same Citizen Portal report.

A Neighborhood That's Waited Since Annexation

Kingsgate was annexed into Kirkland back in 2011 alongside Finn Hill and North Juanita, and city leaders have since flagged it as an underserved, lower-income quadrant lacking equitable public recreation facilities, according to the Seattle DJC. Kirkland previously redeveloped nearby 132nd Square Park using state ecology and county opportunity grants, part of a broader push to expand amenities in the area.

Demand for this kind of indoor space isn't new. Neighborhood association presentations back in September 2023 revealed citywide waitlists exceeding 10,000 participants for swim lessons and more than 4,200 requests for community event space, according to the South Rose Hill / Bridle Trails Neighborhood Association. Parks staff now estimate the church building's classrooms and multi-purpose spaces can accommodate roughly 80 percent of the public recreation programs currently constrained by space limitations across the city, addressing waitlists that had piled up for preschool tumbling, youth summer camps, and adult fitness classes.

Outbid, but the Church Chose Community Anyway

The property was listed for $7.3 million in March, or about $2.2 million per acre, before developers eyeing the RMA 3.6 zoning drove bidding well past $10 million. That zoning permits multi-family residential construction, and medium-density parcels of this size are increasingly scarce in suburban King County, according to Muljat Commercial.

Real estate broker Lynn Zwaagstra said the church likely accepted about $2.7 million less than it could have gotten in order to secure a community-focused use for the site, and that Kirkland had actually offered to buy the property before developers launched their bidding war, per The Real Deal's reporting. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has listed at least six properties across the Puget Sound region, including sites in South Seattle, Mercer Island, Bellevue, Redmond, Auburn and Kirkland, with the other listed churches now under contract.

Not every property in that portfolio is headed for a bulldozer. A former LDS church in Redmond sold last month for $5.1 million to a married couple of real estate investors who plan to keep it running as a religious property for an Indian spiritual leader rather than demolishing it for housing, according to The Real Deal. A 3.6-acre Bellevue parcel and a 2.5-acre Mercer Island parcel were also part of the same regional CBRE portfolio, with the Bellevue site marketed primarily as a residential subdivision tear-down candidate given its single-family zoning, per the Seattle DJC.

A Field Opens Up Next to Affordable Housing

The Kirkland church site shares a property line with the King County Housing Authority's Kirkland Heights complex, which opened in May with 96 new housing units alongside 180 existing units that were updated. City officials say neighborhood youth will get immediate access to the property's outdoor fields, and the large field is expected to become available to the public as soon as the purchase closes.

Kirkland has also said some parts of the 3.3-acre property could be used for affordable housing down the line, though no official timeline or developer partnership has been established. No opening date has been set for the community center itself.

Paying for It Won't Be Easy

Funding the $10 million purchase required difficult capital budget trade-offs, according to the Citizen Portal, with the city drawing on park impact fees, real estate excise taxes, grant funding, and bond reallocations. City financial analysts have warned that 2027 will bring high operational startup costs across multiple community facility projects, meaning the Kingsgate win may still force hard choices elsewhere in Kirkland's budget.