ERES 2026 Wilburton Panel: 2,300 Housing Units ... and Counting!

Bellevue Chamber Staff  |  April 2, 2026

Since the Wilburton rezone passed in June 2025, developers have submitted applications for over 2,300 housing units in the 300-acre neighborhood east of I-405. For comparison, the entire City of Seattle saw applications for just under 2,000 units over the same period. The second panel at the 2026 Eastside Real Estate Symposium, moderated by land use attorney Holly Golden, examined how Wilburton got here, and what comes next.

A DECADE IN THE MAKING

KG Investment Properties co-founder Steve Kramer described Wilburton's transformation from auto row to a walkable, mixed-use neighborhood as a nearly decade-long process. The city's goal: 15,000 homes and 35,000 new jobs over the next two decades. Two pieces of infrastructure form the spine of that vision — the Eastrail corridor, a 100-foot-wide linear park running through the heart of the neighborhood, and the Grand Connection, a 2,200-foot bridge connecting Wilburton to downtown Bellevue across I-405.

"The goal here is to create a very high density, non-car centric neighborhood that's for biking and walking, live, work, play, mixed-use zoning." — Steve Kramer, Co-founder, KG Investment Properties

MAKING THE CODE BUILDABLE

Clover Capital principal Neal Mulnick, who was deeply involved in the rezone negotiations, said the key question was how to make the code buildable from day one. The world had changed dramatically between the process starting in 2016 and finishing in 2025, shifting from an office-focused market to one centered on housing. Stakeholders negotiated on open space requirements, setbacks, and floor plate sizes, studying how every 10 feet of building reduction affected unit counts. The result included a catalyst program and the Multifamily Tax Exemption (MFTE) Supercharger, which allows mandatory affordable units to overlap with voluntarily provided units in exchange for a tax exemption.

"Our mantra was, 'How do you make this code buildable from day one, and what are the things we can compromise on to make that happen?'" — Neal Mulnick, Principal, Clover Capital

Alliance Residential's Jeremiah Jolicoeur confirmed that the Supercharger was the decisive factor, as without it, Alliance was not sure it could proceed despite having land already under control. The Wilburton code also represents a significant improvement over downtown Bellevue's existing framework, making it easier for residential developers to compete for land that once went primarily to office projects.

TRAIL & INFRASTRUCTURE

Eastrail Partners Executive Director Katherine Hollis highlighted what makes Wilburton unusual: The public infrastructure is arriving before the housing. The 42-mile Eastrail corridor already has nearly 20 miles open, and the Wilburton Trestle, funded in part by Amazon's historic $7.5 million investment, is under construction with a summer 2027 opening. Hollis noted that Wilburton station is the first example in the country where transit and trail have been planned in conjunction from the start.

"There's an embarrassment of riches of the public infrastructure coming before the housing comes. And that's so unique." — Neal Mulnick, Principal, Clover Capital

Kramer's KG Investment Properties is already under construction on Willie Burton's, a food hall with three operators and an outdoor beer garden, targeted to open this summer as the neighborhood's first community gathering place. The firm also has 600 residential units and 20,000 square feet of retail in the permitting pipeline, all designed to interface directly with the Eastrail corridor.

"When you have two groups who are usually yelling at each other from across the table, sitting on the same side of the table, pushing the same thing ... shut up, get out of the way, listen, and go forward." — Neal Mulnick, on the Eastside Housing Roundtable

Mulnick credited the Bellevue Chamber and Patience Malaba of the Housing Development Consortium for creating the Eastside Housing Roundtable, a negotiating structure that brought developers and affordable housing advocates to the same side of the table. Panelists agreed that partnership model should extend to upcoming rezones in BelRed and other Eastside neighborhoods.

Check out the full video from our 2026 Eastside Real Estate Symposium here!