Bernick believes rail has tremendous potential to stimulate development, but not without a conscious effort. When BART first started in the 1960s, the idea was development would naturally occur at stations through market forces. That never occurred. Instead, BART and Bay Area cities are just now tackling projects tied to rail. Rail-oriented projects in urban areas may take awhile to occur.
Redevelopment is tough because lines run through established neighborhoods.
Built by Paul Allen as the new home of the Portland Trailblazers basketball team, the Rose Garden's location along the MAX tracks in the Lloyd District complete with its own station is no coincidence. As the Sound Transit Board prepares to vote Feb. 25 on a final light-rail alignment including whether to build a tunnel below the Rainier Valley the agency's planners have made numerous trips to Portland to learn from that city's experiences. Bill Houppermans, manager of civil engineering for Sound Transit's light-rail development, said that like MAX in its early stages, the Link rail system has yet to light a fire under the private sector either for joint development of stations or independent development of surrounding property. The first trains won't hit the track until 2001 in Tacoma, followed by service between downtown Seattle and SeaTac in 2004 and downtown Seattle and Northgate in 2006. Paul Sleeth, a broker with Collier's International, agreed.