Business taking notice of
Bellingham’s ‘back room’
Bakerview/Hannegan area quietly growing
by Hilary Parker


Nestled north of Barkley Village and east of the Guide Meridian, this corner of Bellingham is quietly coming into its own. From the Hannegan Road on its easternmost boundary and East Bakerview Road running through its heart, the area includes a mix of residential, light industrial, retail – and potential.
“This is Bellingham’s back room,” said Winton Smith, the second-generation owner of Western Roofing – referencing the bustling community of light industrial businesses that have located here.
Bill Wheeler of Innovative Insurance Solutions, located on East Bakerview just off of Hannegan, sees it similarly. For all that’s going on here, “It’s amazing how many people don’t know where the Hannegan is,” he said.
But for the area’s many uninitiated, there are just as many who have discovered the benefits of being in business and doing business with this corner of Bellingham.

A new hot spot
In the time since Smith moved his business from Iowa Street to Irongate Road in 2000, and Wheeler opened his business in 2003, both men say they’ve seen the area grow and develop.
Like many businesses, Western Roofing moved to take advantage of more land at reasonable prices. Other businesses to make the move include the Whatcom Transportation Authority and Ludtke-Pacific Trucking. Smith sold his prime piece of real estate at the corner of Woburn and Iowa to Roger Jobs Motors in 2000.
“It’s been a great move for him and a great move for me,” Smith said.
While his new location has less visibility than Iowa Street, the trade off was affordability.
“Frankly, when I moved out here there was some trepidation if I would make it or not,” he said. But his worries proved to be unfounded. Western Roofing is thriving.
For Wheeler, who moved his business from his home, the added visibility of a storefront for his business has been a big plus, even with the out of the way location. Wheeler says people stop in when they see the AFLAC sign in his window. And working in an industrial area it’s been easy for area businesses’ employees to find him and stop by.
Like Wheeler and Smith’s businesses – some new and some established companies relocating to larger digs – many have found the Hannegan/Bakerview area to be ideal.
One of the area’s new additions is Henifin Plaza, which fronts the Hannegan. Jaime and Lynne Henifin recently developed phase one of the plaza. The Henifin family owned land on the Hannegan and saw that now was the time to develop as the area has started to grow.
With small retail spaces in the front and warehouse space in the rear, the 20,000-square-foot Henifin Plaza is already 70 percent leased and set to open this month.
Bellingham Millworks is leasing 50 percent of the space as they’ve outgrown operations next door, said Lynne Henifin. The plaza’s other tenant is VanderPol Building Components of Lynden, which is opening a satellite office.
Once the plaza’s phase one building is leased, the Henifin’s hope to begin the permitting for phase two, a second 22,000-square-foot structure.
Another new kid on the block is Taylor’s Backyard Design Center, slated to open on the Hannegan this summer. Bob Taylor’s business will take up 5,000 square feet of the Tyee Properties’ 14,000-square-foot building, with space still available to lease.
“It’s our belief that [Hannegan is] the next expansion of Bellingham,” said Taylor.
Taylor and Tyee aren’t alone in that belief. The buzzword among area business owners seems to be potential.
“We’re going to see some other businesses move out here, too,” predicts Smith.
“We haven’t got the services for the people who come out here,” he explains, adding he fully expects to see a restaurant or bakery move in to fuel the army of employees who come to work here every day.
But new businesses or those looking to relocate had better hurry.
“It’s definitely one of Bellingham’s top, if not the top, industrial area,” says Erin Sundean, a commercial real estate broker with the Bedford Group.
“A lot of people want to be in that area because they do business with others in that area,” he adds.
But there’s becoming a scarcity of available land. A piece of land zoned industrial without wetland concerns and services available is a hot commodity, says Sundean.
Case in point, just last month he was showing properties to a Canadian client looking for 10 developable acres. The number of suitable parcels in the area numbered fewer than 10.
Rolling slowdowns
And with growth comes traffic.
One of the benefits Smith sees to his Irongate location is the less busy streets allow for easier distribution as big trucks can easily come and go. But he knows it’s just a matter of time before the traffic catches up with the area.
Take for example the main artery that Hannegan flows into: “Woburn Street is just solid now with traffic at 5 p.m.,” Smith remarks.
“It will be interesting to see how that corridor from Hannegan to Woburn will develop,” echoes Lynne Henifin.
Taylor is also concerned that added pressure on the Guide will continue to push traffic onto Hannegan.
Taylor’s business is relocating from its Lynden home to take advantage of the opportunity to expand and easy access for customers. The added traffic is a boon in some respects, but facing gridlock would destroy the accessibility businesses enjoy now.
Taylor predicts things could get much worse once the state begins to widen the Guide north of town. “We’re going to be faced with another dilemma as we’re bombarded with traffic,” he said.
The city of Bellingham recognizes the challenges area roads will face in the future. In fact, Hannegan is predicted to drop to a Level of Service F – thinking failing grade – by 2022.
A lot of that added traffic has to do with drivers from outside the city limits, many who have started using the Hannegan as an alternative to the Guide, says Chris Comeau, a transportation planner with the city of Bellingham.
It’s an issue Comeau can relate to firsthand. During a road project on the Guide a couple of years ago Comeau noticed a “tremendous shift in traffic over to the Hannegan.”
“A lot of the traffic is not generated within the city. It’s really difficult for the city to do anything about it,” he notes.
It’s a similar situation along East Bakerview where a portion of the road is on county land. While the city recognizes the area’s growth and the eventual need to widen Bakerview, the city won’t even begin to consider improvements to that portion until it’s annexed, Comeau said.
Western Roofing’s Smith says he’s advocated widening Bakerview to four lanes after moving to Irongate and believes the area’s growth will eventually push the city to address the issue.
“They’re going to have some tough choices pretty soon,” he remarked.
Smith sees the increased traffic, and its accommodation, as piece of the puzzle to maintaining livability as Bellingham grows. “We have to try and manage [growth] for the highest quality of life. Growth is inevitable – it’s just how you manage it.”

Northward expansion
Developer Ralph Black would agree with that assessment. Black’s Alliance Properties has proposed a new mixed-use development north of East Bakerview in the King Mountain area.
Currently, King Mountain is not within the city limits, but is part of the city’s Urban Growth Area (UGA) and expected to be brought into the city limits in the relatively near future. (Currently, the proposal is in Whatcom County’s hands for review.) The U-shaped area is surrounded by the city on three sides and already has city water and sewer services.
“I think our [proposal] will be easier to support than the others,” said Black, due in large part to the simple geography of the area.
Annexation of the southernmost portion of the unincorporated land is already in the works, put in motion by the local residents.
Black’s proposal would create an urban village development with single-family homes and multiple-family units, plus a business and retail center, and plenty of open space and trails. Black says 50 percent of the development will be set aside for recreational uses.
“King Mountain represents a community,” says Black. Its design takes into account those aspects of livability that have made many Bellingham neighborhoods so desirable. And with ample land to meet the demands of density, infrastructure and green space, Black thinks it will be a desirable package to win the city’s approval.
But the first hurdle will be adoption of the UGA as the city and county wrangle with the arguments between livability and density.
It’s a catch-22 from planner Comeau’s perspective as well. “If you want to have the urban villages blossom, you have to let the development occur,” he notes.
Creating density by infilling developments within the city limits will naturally create more traffic, but urban villages by design aim to encourage residents to use alternative modes of transportation, Comeau points out. And as the county’s employment and urban center, Bellingham residents have to come to expect traffic. “Expect more traffic and adjust your expectations,” he advises.
The debate is one sure to influence the timeline, and outcome, of Black’s proposed development. He estimates the best-case scenario for starting the project is still two to six years away.
But the way he sees it, growth in this corner of Bellingham is inevitable.
As Black puts it: “If not here, then where?”