The Tehaleh development outside Bonney Lake is celebrating a number of accomplishments this month.
Foremost may be that it’s been five years since the project was bought from Cascadia and ground was broken, and the new developers American Newland Communities and North America Sekisui House celebrated its half-decade anniversary with the annual Harvest Day event on Sept. 23, complete with hot air balloon rides, horse-drawn carriage rides, and a beer and wine garden.
“What we’ve built in five short years is incredible,” said Newland Senior Vice President Scott Jones in a press release. “From the wide selection of builders to the appeal of a community planned by Newland, a national expert, Tehaleh has been very popular. Every day residents tell us how much they love the Mount Rainier views, the sense of community, and the nature right out their back door.”
The official 5th birthday of the project is Sept. 29.
In conjunction with the celebration event, developers announced more than 1,000 homes have been sold in the 4,700-acre project.
When the area is complete, the community will have up to 9,700 homes, 1,800 acres of parks and trails, seven schools and more.
Finally, the area saw the completion of the northern half of the 198th Avenue corridor, connecting 198th to 199th Ave Court East.
The intersection of 120th Street East and 198th now has a new traffic light, as well as the 198th Avenue and Rhodes Lake Road East intersection and the intersection separating Bonney Lake High School and Mountain View Middle School.
The Sumner School District (which will be soon known as the Sumner-Bonney Lake School District, following an Sept. 20 school board vote) is also looking forward to the groundbreaking of a new elementary school in the Tehaleh area.
The school board awarded Neeley Construction, a family-owned Puyallup company, the general construction contract on Sept. 13.
Construction for the 55,000 square-foot project is expected to begin Oct. 18 with a groundbreaking ceremony attended by local officials, politicians and community leaders. The ceremony is not open to the public.
The school is planned to have 24 classrooms and be able to hold 550 students.
