By CLAYTON PARK

With building permit finally in hand, developer Douglas Howe of Touchstone Corp. is wasting little time proceeding with construction of a retail project called Northgate North.

The 324,000-square-foot four-story retail project recently broke ground on a four-acre site just north of Northgate Mall, located along Northgate Way, between 3rd and 5th avenues NE.

Its anchor tenants will be Target, which is planning a two-story, 165,000-square-foot store that will be the chain's largest in the Puget Sound, and Best Buy, the nation's largest consumer electronics retailer, whose 50,000-square-foot store at Northgate North will be one of its first in this region.

"We anticipate another six to 10 tenants," says Howe, who added that the tenants will include a gourmet coffee store ("we're talking to two of the usual suspects," he says), "two to three specialty food-type tenants, and probably a clothing store, home furnishings store and perhaps a toy store."

The first of the new stores is expected to open in October 2000, with the other stores opening over the next several months after that.

Howe said his company chose the Northgate area for its retail center because it is "underserved by the type of tenants attracted to this project" - namely "big box" retailers. "If there's one thing I've heard a thousand times, if not once (from people in the community), it's 'Gee, I'm so glad there's going to be a Target. Now I don't have to drive to Lynnwood!'" said Howe.

Northgate North will include a nine-level 996-care parking garage and mid-block pedestrian connections between NE Northgate Way and NE 112th (a new city street that will run east-west adjacent to the project site), and, according to Howe, "generous landscaping all around," including built-in planters with trees.

The project will be fairly "atypical" among retail shopping centers of its type, in that it will be vertical, rather than spread out. "We're creating in four acres what would take over 30 acres in a typical retail configuration: one-level buildings surrounded by seas of parking," he said.

Howe noted that it has taken nearly three years of planning and going through the permitting process to get his Northgate North project to this point. "It's been a challenging and at times difficult project," he acknowledged. "We appreciate the community's and the city's patience and support. We look forward to creating a project that will enhance the (Northgate Area Comprehensive Plan's) goals of creating a pedestrian-friendly urban center."