About Quil Ceda Village

Project Description

The Tulalip Tribes Reservation consists of 22,000 acres located 35 miles north of Seattle, Washington. Along its eastern most boundary runs a major interstate freeway, providing the Tribes with a highly visible opportunity to develop a major Retail/ Entertainment/ Destination resort facility. The Tribes own approximately 2,000 acres on the Interstate-5 corridor, with approximately one mile of I-5 frontage property.

The Tribes began development of the initial 460 acres of the gross 2,000 acres it has declared as its Business Park in 1998. The Master Plan created in the early 1980s was to begin development of the Phase One project on the southern end of this raw, heavily forested, 460 acre parcel of land, and then proceed northward, systematically providing necessary infrastructure to build out the 460 acres to its northern most boundary. Basic infrastructure development began with land clearing and has evolved into the Tribes securing leases with two major national retailers, Wal Mart and Home Depot, to anchor this south end. The Tribes then invested into its first Tribally owned 34,000 square foot retail center adjacent to the two anchor tenants.

Phase One

Phase One was conceived with a complete understanding that infrastructure would have to be built from point zero to completion. In other municipalities, these initial investments into infrastructure would be recouped from several sources, including sales tax revenue. With that in mind, the Tulalip Tribes have created a municipal corporation chartered by the Tribes under its Constitutional authority. This municipality is Quil Ceda Village.

Tulalip Tribes built its New Casino and Maintenance building, centrally located in the Phase One project. This 227,000 square foot Casino opened in June of 2003.

Roads and Utilities are systematically moving northward and are completed to the south side of the 82-acre New Casino site. Roads and Utilities went under construction, which completed the basic infrastructure requirements to the north end of Phase One. The Tribes negotiated with Chelsea Property Group (a large national Retail Outlet Center corporation) and is currently constructing (a 370,000 square foot) Seattle Premium Outlet Mall on the north side of the 82-acre New Casino site. Just north of the Seattle Premium Outlet Mall, the Tribes will build lease property to another big box national retailer and complete the north end of Phase One with the final infrastructure improvements.

A Wastewater Treatment facility was built to handle the Quil Ceda Village capacity. The Tribes elected to build a second Wastewater Plant and built it within the confines of the 2,000 acre economic development, and adjacent to Phase One. This new facility embraces the new technology of "Membrane" treatment processes that have proven very successful by its innovative creators, the Kubota Corporation. This new facility was up and running in June 2003. This new facility has an ultimate capacity of 4MGPD. While it was being built to handle the 4MGPD, it initially has have membranes installed to handle 750,000GPD, with more membranes installed as capacity in the eastern portion of the reservation demands load.

Phase Two

The second phase will include the Seattle Premium Outlets®, a 20-acre Power Retail Center, a national retailer, a strip mall, a Water Theme Park and Family Center, an RV Park and Central Plaza. Phase Three is being contemplated.

The Tulalip Tribes

The Tulalip Tribes is organized under Section 16 of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, 25 U.S.C. Section 461, et seq. and is governed by a constitution which describes the governing body of the tribe and sets forth its powers and authority. As such, it is understood that the tribe has an organizational and structure with a defined chain of command for its decision-making process.

The United States of America in trust for the Tribe generally holds title to Reservation lands. Under applicable federal law, such tribal trust lands generally may not be; sold, taxed or encumbered. It is possible, with the approval of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and for a lessee to grant a leasehold mortgage on his leasehold interest. This approach can give a lender the right, upon default, to exercise dominion and control over the land in question for the remaining term of the underlying lease. Such leases, by federal regulation, are generally limited to a term of 25 years with the right to grant one renewal option for an additional 25 years. Some reservations may have lease terms of up to 99 years. It is understood that the Tulalip Tribes desire to offer lease terms of 30 years and will consider option to renew. The primary objective of this policy is to ensure that the impacts of these obligations do not extend too many generations into the future.