A developer has submitted a preliminary application to the city of Vancouver to build two satellite buildings in the Vancouver Mall parking lot, one of which is described as a drive-thru coffee stand.
The proposed buildings would be located at the outer edge of the south side of the parking lot, slightly east of the Vancouver Mall transit center and near the Hobby Lobby (formerly Sears) tenant space.
The pre-application outlines plans for a 3,000-square-foot commercial building and a 574-square-foot coffee shop. A site diagram depicts the coffee stand with two drive-thru lanes, one on each side, and also shows a drive-thru lane wrapping around the larger commercial building.
If the proposed project is built, it would be the second satellite development at the Vancouver Mall, not counting the transit center.
Plans for the first development appeared in the fall of 2018 when the mall’s parent company, Centennial Real Estate, submitted a preliminary application to build an approximately 10,000-square-foot building at the southwest corner of the parking lot.
The building began construction last year and was completed earlier this year. The first tenant, Five Guys Burgers and Fries, opened at the end of September. The second, Chick-fil-A, is scheduled to debut at some point in the winter. No tenant has been announced for the last of the building’s three suites.
Like the first satellite building, the proposed coffee stand and new commercial building would be built on what is currently part of the mall parking lot. The pre-application packet states that the new project would result in a net loss of 60 parking spaces.
That’s not necessarily a concern — the mall has approximately 5,000 parking spaces, and when plans for the first satellite project emerged in 2018, then-manager JB Schutte said the mall had more parking than it needed.
Reached for comment this week, current mall general manager Tracy Peters did not confirm any plans for additional satellite buildings, but stated that the mall has always had an excess of parking spaces.
The pre-application was submitted in late October by KPFF Consulting Engineers on behalf of Rhino Holdings Vancouver LLC, an apparent subsidiary of California-based Rhino Investment Group. A pre-application conference with the city is scheduled for 9 a.m. Dec. 3.
Centennial owns most of the land area inside the Vancouver Mall Loop, but the major anchor tenants — Macy’s and J.C. Penney — own their own store spaces as well as nearby portions of the parking lot.
That was also true of former anchor tenant Sears, which closed in 2018. County property records show that Rhino Holdings Vancouver now owns the southern anchor tenant space and the surrounding portion of the parking lot, including the area where the new satellite development is proposed.
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