Some infilling on its way. Putting Bellingham's former St. Luke's Hospital Campus back into use.

The former St. Luke's and later St. Joe's South Campus hospital site has sat unused for years. It has recently been purchased by WWU with WWU Foundation money. This creates an opportunity for expansion to serve an educational need in the growing healthcare field. It may be a while before much change is made, but the wheels are starting to move in a direction at least.

Photo from WWU News publication

It's a large area of land centrally located in Bellingham that has sat mostly empty for several years.

When I first came to Bellingham, there were two hospitals, St. Joe's and St. Luke's. During the 1980s, I remember a bit of rivalry between the hospitals that was labeled "Scar Wars" in the media. The 1980s also saw Ronald Regan's Star Wars plan.

I wasn't involved in the politics about this so my memories are only very tangential to the hospital situation.

Back in the early 1980s, Bellis Fair had not yet been built so there was a lot of debate over where expanded retailing should go in Bellingham; downtown or the outlying plans for Bellis Fair Mall. At some point, there was a plan, among many plans, to build a bigger shopping center near the current Fred Myers on Lakeway. Fred Meyers was there, but there was quite a bit of vacant land just south of it where a shopping center could "possibly" go.

In the middle, just west of I-5, was St. Luke's Hospital which, at that time, had some expansion plans, as I remember. It was trying to keep up with St. Joe's.

I wrote a letter to the editor envisioning a mall going in south of Fred Meyers as it was still somewhat close to downtown with Lakeway being just east of I-5 and downtown being west. For some reason I remember having a brain storm about St. Luke's in the middle becoming "St. Luke's University."

I was thinking that the central part of Bellingham could be a focus of growth; more compact growth than the plans to spread out along I-5 and Meridian.

As for a retail core in central Bellingham, I-5 has been like a barrier preventing this core from feeling cohesive. A strong mall, or downtown area, needs cohesiveness to offer the many choices within walking distance. This "core" is still pretty spread out and divided by I-5. Where busy Lakeway goes under I-5, there isn't much room. It's a bottleneck.

Imagine if a much wider connection crossed under I-5 in central Bellingham. Imagine if there was better bicycle and pedestrian connection. Then imagine if some of the commercial development, of the Meridian area, ended up more compact and in central Bellingham on both sides of I-5.

In reality, Bellis Fair eventually arrived much farther north at Meridian and I-5. Downtown has become a multi use area with more residential development. Downtown has evolved beyond just retail to multi use and residential. These days, retail is becoming less important in the era of online shopping anyway.

Fast forward to 2026. At least the old St. Luke's Hospital campus, that sat mostly empty, like a void in the middle of Bellingham, for several years, is now in a position for infill as Western Washington University puts that campus to use.

Underutilized parking lot.

Old hospital.

Chestnut Professional Building also part of the deal.