𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝗛𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗲𝗿 𝗛𝗼𝘂𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗼𝗻 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝗸-𝗮𝗻𝗱-𝗥𝗶𝗱𝗲? 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗜𝗰𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘅 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗴𝗲 𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝗶𝘁𝗲

For years, the old Houghton Park-and-Ride was mostly a piece of transportation infrastructure people drove past on 116th Avenue NE. Then Metro stopped using it as a park-and-ride. Kirkland bought the roughly five-acre property, turned it temporarily into a mix of pickleball, gardens, biking, and skate features, and began considering what a permanent public use could look like.

Now the temporary phase is over. The former Houghton Park-and-Ride at 6920 NE 70th Place is being redeveloped into a Seattle Kraken Iceplex and Kirkland Community Center. The Park and Play closed in May 2026, construction began in June, and the City’s current schedule calls for the new facility to open in fall 2027. For a site that spent decades functioning mainly as a parking lot beside I-405, that is a significant change in both how the property will be used and how many people it could bring into this part of Kirkland.

𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝗸-𝗮𝗻𝗱-𝗥𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝗸 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝘆 𝘁𝗼 𝗜𝗰𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘅

The site’s transition has happened quickly. King County Metro stopped using Houghton as a park-and-ride in 2023 after ridership had fallen, and Kirkland acquired the property from the Washington State Department of Transportation in early 2024 for recreational and other public purposes. While the City worked through its longer-term options, it created Houghton Park and Play, adding temporary pickleball courts, community gardens, a pump track, bicycle features, and a modular skate park.

That temporary park was always meant to bridge the gap between the old transit use and whatever came next. The Seattle Kraken had approached Kirkland in late 2023 about developing an ice facility on the property, and after two years of planning, negotiations, public discussion, and design work, the City Council authorized the project in December 2025. The formal agreements were signed later that month, and the City and Kraken publicly announced the final plan in April 2026.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗜𝘀 𝗔𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗕𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝘁?

The centerpiece will be two NHL-regulation ice rinks operated as a Kraken Iceplex. Alongside them, the building is planned to include a City-operated community center, a full-service public restaurant, a Kraken team store, and space for recreation programs, events, and other community activities. Kirkland says the community center will become the largest in the City, with flexible program rooms and fitness space.

The community component is important because this is not simply a private practice facility placed on City land. Kirkland residents are expected to be eligible for up to two hours of free open skating each month, while discounted programming for lower-income and vulnerable residents is planned through the Kraken’s One Roof Foundation. The City has also identified the building as a place for youth programs, fitness classes, community gatherings, camps, events, and seasonal activities.

𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗜𝘀 𝗔𝗹𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘆 𝗨𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝘄𝗮𝘆

Anyone expecting the site to remain an empty parking lot until a future groundbreaking may already notice the difference. The City lists June 2026 as the start of construction. Early work includes tree removal, demolition, drilling for temporary support walls, and excavation for underground stormwater infrastructure.

Tree removal has been one of the more visible parts of the site preparation. Kirkland says the Kraken is making fee-in-lieu payments for some larger trees removed as part of the project, with that money supporting tree-canopy restoration elsewhere in the city. The work will continue through 2027 if the project remains on its current schedule, with the facility targeted to open in the fall.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗛𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗧𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝗸 𝗙𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀?

The closure of Park and Play did not mean every temporary recreation feature simply disappeared. Kirkland has been relocating several of them to other locations around the city. The community garden plots moved to an expanded section of Rose Hill Meadows and opened there in spring 2026. The temporary pickleball facilities were replaced through work at Peter Kirk Park, where the City planned six courts. Elements from the temporary skate park are being incorporated into an upgraded Peter Kirk Park skate facility, while the pump track and bicycle features have been evaluated separately for possible relocation or reuse.

That is an important part of the project story because the five-acre property had developed its own community of users during the temporary period. The Iceplex represents a much larger permanent investment, but the City has also been trying to preserve some of the recreational uses that occupied the land while the long-term plan was being decided.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗶𝗰-𝗣𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗜𝘀 𝗨𝗻𝘂𝘀𝘂𝗮𝗹

The project is being built through a partnership between Kirkland and the Seattle Kraken rather than as a conventional City capital project. Kirkland owns the land, while Seattle Hockey Partners is responsible for financing and constructing the facility. The agreement uses a 34-year ground lease, with the City ultimately gaining ownership of the facility at the end of the lease unless it exercises an earlier purchase option.

The City has emphasized that the project is structured without new taxes for construction of the facility. Agreements also include completion and financial guarantees intended to protect the public interest during construction and operation. That arrangement is part of why the project moved forward after Kirkland voters rejected a broader parks ballot measure in 2023 that had contemplated a different recreation and aquatics facility on the Houghton site.

𝗜𝘁 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗕𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝗮 𝗡𝗲𝗶𝗴𝗵𝗯𝗼𝗿𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗖𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿

A two-rink ice facility has a different draw than a typical neighborhood community center. The Kraken expects youth hockey, skating programs, tournaments, events, and other activities to bring people from beyond the immediate neighborhood. Kirkland estimates the finished facility could generate roughly $7 million a year in economic activity for Kirkland and the Eastside, while creating both construction and ongoing jobs.

The project could also give Kirkland a larger role in the region’s professional sports landscape. The City lists the facility as a potential home for the Seattle Torrent, adding professional women’s hockey to the mix. That remains a potential use rather than something homeowners should treat as guaranteed, but it illustrates the scale Kirkland and the Kraken envision for the site.

There is an interesting parallel with what has happened at Northgate, where the Kraken Community Iceplex became one piece of a much broader redevelopment story. Houghton is a smaller site and a different kind of neighborhood, but a regional recreation destination can still influence how the surrounding area feels and how often people who do not live nearby have a reason to visit.

𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗟𝗼𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗕𝗲𝘀𝗶𝗱𝗲 𝗜-𝟰𝟬𝟱 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀

The former park-and-ride sits immediately beside I-405 rather than in the middle of a residential block. That was one reason the site had previously been considered attractive for a major recreation facility: it has regional access without placing the entire use deep inside a neighborhood.

That does not mean traffic and access disappear as concerns. A successful ice complex, restaurant, community center, tournaments, and special events will create a very different traffic pattern from an underused park-and-ride or temporary recreation space. The site’s access from the NE 70th Place and 116th Avenue NE area has required transportation coordination with WSDOT and federal agencies, and the project design includes a shared parking area on the northern portion of the property. How comfortably the surrounding street network handles peak activity will be one of the things worth watching after the facility opens.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗔𝗹𝘀𝗼 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝗻𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗡𝗘 𝟴𝟱𝘁𝗵 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗲𝘁 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆

The Iceplex sits south of the NE 85th Street interchange, but Kirkland explicitly describes it as a potential catalyst for future investment around the NE 85th Street Station Area. That part of the city is already undergoing one of Kirkland’s most ambitious long-term transformations, combining the rebuilt I-405 interchange, future high-capacity transit, new zoning, and plans for a more walkable mixed-use district.

A recreation destination by itself does not create a new urban center. But it gives people another reason to come to the area outside normal commuting hours and adds an amenity that future housing, restaurants, and businesses can build around. This is a similar dynamic to what we have been watching farther north in Mountlake Terrace Town Center, where transportation infrastructure and new destinations are arriving before the surrounding neighborhood is fully built out.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗠𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗡𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗯𝘆 𝗛𝗼𝗺𝗲𝗼𝘄𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀?

For nearby homeowners, there is no simple formula that says an Iceplex raises or lowers values by a certain percentage. Some buyers may see a major community center, restaurant, skating facility, and proximity to future regional transit as meaningful amenities. Others may pay more attention to traffic, event activity, lighting, or how close a particular street sits to the site.

That distinction is particularly important in the current Eastside market, where buyers have more inventory to compare than they did a few years ago. Our recent Bellevue Housing Market Update showed how much more selective Eastside buyers have become, while September Housing Market by the Numbers showed the same broader shift across King County. An amenity like the Iceplex can be part of a location’s appeal, but buyers still evaluate the individual house, street, access, noise, condition, and price.

For someone selling nearby in the next year or two, it is also worth distinguishing construction conditions from the permanent project. Temporary trucks, excavation, and site work will eventually end. The long-term question is what the completed facility and surrounding development do to the neighborhood once normal operations begin.

𝗞𝗶𝗿𝗸𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗜𝘀 𝗕𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗩𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗱 𝗖𝗶𝘁𝘆

The Iceplex also fits into a larger change in Kirkland. The city is no longer defined solely by its waterfront downtown and established residential neighborhoods. Totem Lake has been substantially redeveloped, the NE 85th corridor is being reshaped around transit, and major public and private investments are creating new destinations away from Lake Washington.

That broader context is part of what we covered in our Kirkland Community Spotlight. Kirkland still has the waterfront, parks, established neighborhoods, and Cross Kirkland Corridor that have long shaped its identity. What is changing is the number of different centers and amenities within the city. The Houghton Iceplex adds another piece to that map.

𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗪𝗮𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝗕𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗡𝗼𝘄 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗙𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟳

The biggest milestone is straightforward: whether construction stays on schedule for a fall 2027 opening. Between now and then, the site will continue to look much more like a construction project than a community destination.

It is also worth watching transportation and access work, the final mix of community programming, restaurant plans, how the facility is used for professional and tournament events, and how the surrounding NE 85th Station Area develops alongside it. Some pieces are already locked in — two NHL-sized rinks and the community center are central parts of the project — while other details will become clearer as opening approaches.

𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗼𝗺 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗲

The former Houghton Park-and-Ride is not waiting for a future decision anymore.

The temporary Park and Play closed in May. Construction began in June. The Seattle Kraken and City of Kirkland are now building a two-rink Iceplex, Kirkland’s largest community center, a restaurant, team store, and year-round recreation destination on a site that spent most of its previous life storing commuter cars.

If the current schedule holds, the doors are expected to open in fall 2027.

For Kirkland residents, the bigger question is what happens after that. The project could bring more recreation, visitors, economic activity, and investment to an area that is already changing around I-405 and NE 85th Street. At the same time, the real effects will be highly local. A homeowner a few blocks away may experience the project differently from someone across town who simply gains another place to skate, eat, or attend an event.

For more Kirkland, Eastside, development, and housing-market coverage, browse the North End Homes blog. If you are buying or selling in Houghton, Rose Hill, or elsewhere in Kirkland, Chris Byler at Windermere Real Estate can help you look at how nearby development fits into the larger picture for a specific property.