With the commercial scene dramatically changing in Ridgefield, the community is transitioning from a bedroom community to a full-service city, a vision leaders established in the early 2000s.
Ridgefield City Manager Steve Stuart said developing the town into a full-service city was a “common-sense extension of the metro area.” Stuart believes the city’s industrial sector, its connection to nature and active growth provides Ridgefield residents the opportunity to live, work and enjoy their community.
The Union Ridge Town Center is expected to be a retail hub for not just Ridgefield, but northern Clark County and beyond.
At the Union Ridge Town Center development, once complete, Costco is expected to serve outlying cities like Longview and will be Clark County’s third location. The In-N-Out Burger could have an even greater draw since it is the popular chain’s first location in Washington.
The Union Ridge Town Center could also feature 14 retail pads outside of the Costco anchor. Preliminary designs highlight six drive-thru capabilities within the development, as well.
In addition to smaller retail options, Pad “L” in the Union Ridge Town Center is slated to be a 30,725-square-foot building on the north side of Pioneer Street.
Outside of the Union Ridge Town Center, Ridgefield has many other projects planned.
“So when you ask what’s coming next, all I have to do is look at the plans that have been adopted and that’s what paints the picture for us,” Stuart said. “At the junction, it’s large-scale regional commercial businesses, educational institutions with Clark College and large employers. That area has been planned for that, with the zoning and with the infrastructure that’s being developed, for years. And that is what you will continue to see — those larger regional businesses at the junction.”
On the same side of the freeway, a YMCA is proposed for construction along Pioneer Street.
Across the freeway from the Union Ridge Town Center another commercial development will feature multiple buildings. The Tri-Mountain Station development is on the east side of Interstate 5, off of South 65th Avenue. This development is planned to have nine buildings, with one slated for 39,765 square feet of retail, a 26,440-square-foot loading area, and 6,720 square feet of covered outdoor garden retail.
A flier for the Tri-Mountain Station development also shows plans for an 85-room hotel, two drive-thru food buildings, a drive-thru bank and three more retail buildings, the largest being 25,000 square feet.
Tri-Mountain Station also designates a large swath of land for PeaceHealth along North 65th Avenue to North 10th Street, next to the Clark-Cowlitz fire station. The plot is similar in size to PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center in Vancouver.
Stuart added city leaders want the planned growth to include quality construction that suits Ridgefield and “fits our unique quality, fits what our residents want and need…”
Ridgefield leaders also hope to bring smaller retail in the neighborhoods.
One neighborhood commercial development planned is the Hillhurst Commercial Center off of South Hillhurst Road.
“So that area, it really is an area that is built to have small-scale services and businesses that people can walk to, bike to, that are a part of their neighborhood community and really to function and feel that way,” Stuart said of Hillhurst. “Everything from [its] design to the scale to where [the development will be] located is set up to be able to provide that interaction between the neighborhoods and the services that they can call part of their own little neighborhood area.”
Hillhurst is slated to have three buildings, with one featuring drive-thru capabilities. Currently, signs for Mahoney’s Public House and fika Swedish Coffee sit on the Hillhurst site.
Stuart refers to the commercial area at Pioneer Street and Royle Road as the “crossroads.”
“You’ll continue to see a mix of local, regional and national businesses but ones that are at a smaller scale than what you would see at the junction,” Stuart said.
Stuart added that Ridgefield city staff will look to the council and community for their visions of what’s next.
“We’ll start working to that plan, but I have every belief it will build on the successes that we’ve seen and we’ll see things that we haven’t yet,” Stuart said. “I mean, we have a waterfront that is again, amazingly unique and precious and is something you only get one chance to do and do right, and I know our community is engaged with that, and we will continue to work to keep them engaged.”
Stuart believes the Ridgefield waterfront development will be developed in a way that everyone can recognize as “uniquely Ridgefield.”
