Big Al’s expanding to Beaverton

BY MEGAN PATRICK-VAUGHN of the VBJ

The Kirkwood family of Vancouver is building a second and 10-percent-larger Big Al’s location in Beaverton, Ore., that will serve as an anchor for a new, 89-acre residential and commercial development.

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The $13 million Beaverton location will be 66,000 square feet in two stories and include an arcade more than twice as big as Vancouver’s, a larger family dining area and an 8-foot by 36-foot big screen TV. The look will be much the same, as developers Kirkwood & Kirkwood are looking to create a real brand image, said Vice President Daniel Kirkwood.

The West Village Shopping Center is being developed near the intersection of highways 217 and 26 in Beaverton by Bellevue-based Polygon Northwest and Foundation Real Estate Development. Foundation was formed by Bruce Wood, who played a role in developing Bridgeport Village in Tigard with Opus Development.

After about nine months of operation in Vancouver, developers Kirkwood & Kirkwood decided they had a hit and began looking to expand across the river, Kirkwood said.

The Beaverton development, which is slated to have 1,300 new homes, 30,000 square feet of office and 270,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, came on the radar and the community-commercial concept appealed to the developers.

“Beaverton’s demographics are incredible and being in a major development was very appealing because it will draw a lot of traffic,” Kirkwood said. “Plus, there are a number of big corporations nearby like Nike and Intel.”

The development’s other anchor will be a specialty gourmet grocer, he added.

Portland-based Scott Edwards Architecture is designing the entertainment center, which is expected to break ground in 2008 and be open by 2009.

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