The wait is over. Let the building of a second Sound Transit parking garage in Kent for Sounder train commuters begin.
Sound Transit, Kent city officials and Puyallup-based Absher Construction officially broke ground Tuesday, Oct. 1 on the $62 million garage scheduled to open in 2027 with 400-plus stalls. The garage will go up along Railroad Avenue North, just south of West James Street and east of the Kent Station shopping center, on property where a closed cold storage warehouse once sat.
“This is a project that has been a long time in the making,” said Kent Mayor Dana Ralph at the groundbreaking. “We’ve been talking about it forever. There’s been ups and downs, and days when some thought maybe we don’t need a second garage. But there’s been the strong and consistent voice of South King County and Auburn saying that this is important to our residents coming from the east and west hills to be able to utilize their cars from where we don’t have that connectivity through other forms of transit to get to use Sounder.”
Ralph was glad when the old warehouse was demolished.
“The cold storage building that was here had been an eyesore for a really, really long time,” she said. “The day it came down we could not have celebrated more.”
The garage will serve Sounder S Line passengers and users of Sound Transit Express buses and King County Metro buses in Kent, which is a key mobility hub for South King County residents. As part of the project, a bus layover facility with electric charging stations will be constructed for King County Metro. Previously, Sound Transit added 14 new smart bicycle lockers (reservable by the hour) at Kent Station. The agency also funded an improved pedestrian crossing at Second Avenue North and James Street. The city of Kent completed that work in 2021.
“Giving people more affordable access to regional transit benefits us all,” said Sound Transit Deputy CEO Terri Mestas. “This project helps cement Kent’s role as a regional connection to the destinations where we live, work and play.”
Mestas said that the Kent Station garage, which opened in 2001 just south of where the new garage will go up, is currently about 70% full and trending upward.
Prior to the pandemic, that garage filled up and commuters even parked in nearby neighborhoods. Voters approved funding for garages in Kent, Auburn and Sumner in 2008 with an expected opening of the facilities in 2015. But the Great Recession in 2010, the pandemic in 2020 and other funding issues continually delayed the project.
A second parking garage for Sounder riders in Auburnis expected to open in 2027. The Sumner garage is slated to open in 2026.
“It’s so great to be here to celebrate this important investment in South King County,” said Auburn Mayor Nancy Backus, also a Sound Transit Board member. “Mayor Ralph and I have partnered on this for a long, long time and talked about the day it would become a reality and we are here now. I knew we knew it was coming, but we had to have faith as well.”
Backus said Sounder has served the Kent and Auburn area for more than 20 years and that ridership has been recovering since it dropped off during COVID-19.
“We need to increase access to the Sounder and the economic growth this train provides,” Backus said. “This is a major step in that investment.”
Ralph said she has appreciated the support of Auburn and Sound Transit in this project and that people are excited about it.
“The residents of Kent and businesses in the Valley and our City Council, we are excited about this parking garage,” Ralph said. “People can get to downtown Seattle or south. Our employees can get to work The amount of community revitalization that comes with this is worth celebrating, too.
“We can’t wait to see the good things this brings to our community.”
Sound Transit is studying whether to add more trains at a variety of times and days (maybe weekends) rather than seeking larger station platforms for longer trains, which is the original plan.
“It’s in the study mode with a potential path forward,” Mestas said.
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The Sounder parking garage groundbreaking Oct. 1 in Kent included Kent City Councilmember Zandria Michaud, City Councilmember Toni Troutner, Auburn Mayor Nancy Backus, Kent Mayor Dana Ralph, City Councilmember Satwinder Kaur, City Councilmember Brenda Fincher, Sound Transit Deputy CEO Terri Mestas and City Councilmember John Boyd. COURTESY PHOTO, City of Kent
