A Slew of New Apartments For Muldoon

A before and after of just some of the new buildings in Muldoon

It's great to see higher density development coming along in Muldoon. Located in the southern half of the Creekside Town Center, five new apartment buildings were completed in the time that I've been gone. Creekview Plaza 49, made up of two buildings with 49 units total, is a mixed-use site with units limited to seniors. Creekview Plaza II, which sits next to Creekside Plaza 49, also contains retail space at the ground level (currently occupied by Northrim Bank) and is open to all ages. Lastly, two buildings making up Woven House lie to the south of the Creekview buildings. Woven House is also limited to senior housing. All five buildings are three stories high and sit alongside the busy Muldoon Road thoroughfare. Together with the new Grass Creek North apartment buildings, it can only be expected that the residential population in the T-intersection of Muldoon Road and Debarr has substantially risen.    

Creekview Plaza II - photo by Ken Graham

Of course this was by design as the intersection of Muldoon and Debarr was designated as a key spot for a town center nearly 20 years ago. In the late 2000s the first housing units were built in what was then empty fields with a dying creek. In 2009 I did a bit of a tour of these housing units. But for a long time after that, there was no new residential construction. A Walgreen's store was built nearby, followed by a strip mall a decade after the first residential developments came into being. But now with the large amount of new residential units constructed suddenly in just five years time, the area seems better able to have residents and commercial business feed off each other. 

Creekview 49 - photo by Ken Graham

Yes, Creekside Town Center is unfortunately in a suburban car-centric landscape. But this setting was dictated by suburban commercial development that came decades before the urban concept of a town center came to Anchorage. It's simply difficult to retrofit big box stores into a more pedestrian-friendly environment. But what makes this place unique is that unlike most of Anchorage's sprawl, this area in question truly is seeing a mix of commercial and residential bumping up against each other. Residents in the new Creekview, Woven, and Grass Creek apartments have 10-15 minute access by foot to two large grocery stores, three banks, a pharmacy/mid-size grocery store, a gym, a library branch, and government services. Oh, of course we can't forget Anchorage's only Krispy Kreme. The dine-in options are quite interesting as residents in the area can walk to a Thai, Mongolian, and two sushi restaurants. There was once an Applebee's in the area, but it has since closed. But then again I'm not sure anyone misses that place. 

New buildings that make up Grass Creek North

Creekside Town Center - Muldoon

With what seems like a week now of nothing but cloudless skies and sweltering temperatures flirting with the 70s (quite unusual for late April-early May), I decided to do some cruising around town and went by Muldoon which besides being home to the new Tikahtnu Commons, is also home to the Creekside Town Center -- a project I admittedly forgot about and thought it was for whatever reason put on hold [edit: turns out it was put on hold for a few years]. Mark Pheiffer, the guy behind the controversial downtown parking lot deal and hopeful developer of the Augustine Energy Center, teamed up with Jerry Nesser (of Nesser Construction Inc., of course) to build a pedestrian friendly "town center" that would be home to a mix of retail and various types of housing. Since Pheiffer's announcement back in 2003 about his plans, some of the footprints for the project have been spoiled as Walmart has announced its plan to develop a section along DeBarr Road with a status quo development that of course isn't consistent with the Creekside Town Center standards. Still, the majority of land on the south side of DeBarr was eventually bought and is in the middle of construction as we speak. Despite my very skeptical predictions for this development, my visit to the completed portion of Creekside made for a pleasant surprise to myself. Upon driving down the main avenue leading into the town center, the houses that face the street have no driveway nor a garage. In its place is the classic appearance of porches, stairs, and entrances that lead to a path separated from the roadway. There's not a snout-house in sight. Away from the main entrance are units that face each other with what looks to be a future stream of water that will someday run between the homes along with picnic tables and barbecue grills to the side. Though Creekside is just beginning to get its trickle of tenants, it's easy to visualize the neighborhood residents out by the stream with the barbecue going on a hot summer evening. Architecturally, it seems there is not one house alike as the facades of the homes stay diverse so as to make the area feel more genuine and not look like a giant subdivision that was built overnight. I'm very aware of the criticism of Disneyfying with the faux-historical architecture, but I think I'd rather see more Disneyfied neighborhoods like these than what we see elsewhere in the city. As for the garages and driveways,  they're there -- they're just placed in the rear.

Muldoon Walmart gets the last laugh

Well it looks like Wal-Mart has become the overall victor in the seemingly endless battle between Wal-Mart/Sam's Club and the residents of the surrounding Muldoon neighborhoods. Wal-Mart will no longer have to comply with its previous "give-backs" to Muldoon which included a 2 acre park, a 200 ft. buffer between the big box development and the Old Harbor neighborhood, a plant filled median, and a plaza roundabout between the Wal-Mart and Sam's Club stores. I have to wonder though, since when was a plant filled median considered an "amenity"? At least that's how the ADN described the median among other things now lost in the deal. So why does Wal-Mart no longer have to give Muldoon its plant filled median and other generous amenities? Earlier this year a judge ruled that the Anchorage Assembly's approval for Wal-Mart's rezoning was flawed as the Planning and Zoning Department was left out of changes made by the Muni and the public while Assembly member Dan Coffey had a conflict of interest that other Assembly members brushed off as being non-harmful to the process. As a result, Wal-Mart, now with its little piece of land zoned for commercial use, has decided to squeeze both its new Supercenter and Sam's Club into the remaining 33 acres which will have both buildings side by side with a large parking lot right in front of DeBarr Road old school suburban style! The remaining land that Wal-Mart bought for the Assembly approved rezone will be sold as they return back to residential use. Now that this whole mess seems to be over, I say the Assembly deserves the humiliation. For Mayor Begich and the Assembly to bend over backwards for a business that would throw off entirely the Creekside Town Center master plan was frustrating to watch. Sure Wal-Mart owned the land, and it has a right to do what it wants so long as they meet the building codes of the area, but to rubber stamp Wal-Mart's demand to convert residential property into commercial was a demand we never had to meet. We could've just said "oh you own residential land around the commercial property too? That's nice...", and leave it at that. While Anchorage has spent years whipping up a sustainable 2020 plan that involves mass transit, compact development, etc, Wal-Mart's sudden barge into that particular area was an affront to the whole city as the Creekside Town Center project was beginning to get underway just across the street. In the end, I will miss that plant filled median that never was...