This Year's Frosty Fest Is Also a Look Inside the Building Sammamish Is Deciding On

When did you last walk through the doors at 120 228th Ave NE? For most of the plateau, the answer is a college class, a YMCA gym session, or never. Since July 1, 2026, the City of Sammamish has kept the former Central Washington University building closed to rentals, and only the YMCA and Microsoft's parking-lot lease carried on past that date.

On Friday, December 11, the doors open for a free family evening. Frosty Fest 2026 is a "Magical Movie in a Winter Wonderland" put on by Sammamish Parks & Recreation inside what the city now calls Building 120. The timing matters. In its October 13 budget message, the city said a decision to lease or sell the building was expected within 60 to 90 days. That makes this year's Frosty Fest a holiday party and also one of the few chances to see the inside of a 21.5-acre city property while its future is still being decided.

What December 11 Looks Like

The city describes the evening as a pajama party. Here's what's planned:

• Dress code: your coziest PJs
• Inside: popcorn and hot cocoa, a holiday ornament craft, photos with characters from Frozen, and a family movie
• Dinner: a food truck on site
• Parking: on site at Building 120
• Cost: free

It's an early-evening event, and the city says more details are coming. Check the city's Frosty Fest page for start and end times before you head out.

Frosty Fest has been in this building before. A past city notice announced a Frosty Fest on December 13 at Central Washington University–Sammamish, with local school choirs, a photo booth, real reindeer, two food trucks, and a shuttle to overflow parking at Eastlake High School. This year's event brings the tradition back to the same address. This time the college is gone, and the city is hosting in a building it controls and has largely closed to outside use.

What You'll Be Standing In

A city update on Building 120 lays out the property in detail, and a few of the numbers put the movie night in context.

The wetlands are tied to George Davis Creek, which runs along the edge of the site. The city's own application notes that any future development would have to assess those critical areas first.

An assessment presented to the City Council on April 21, 2026 found the building generally in good shape, with major systems still working. It also found deferred maintenance: cracked exterior finish, rusting steel, failing caulk, sagging ceiling tiles, worn carpet, and a water heater near the end of its life. The estimate to bring it back to like-new condition was about $4.8 million. Running it as is costs about $200,000 a year, not counting city staff time. Those two figures frame every option on the table, so they're worth remembering as you walk past the lobby on your way to the cocoa.

How a College Building Lost Its College

The city bought the property in 2015 for $6.1 million, hoping to bring a higher-education partner to Sammamish. Central Washington University leased it on terms that started below market rent, with scheduled increases and an option to buy. As costs climbed, the city's May 2025 transition plan says, the arrangement became financially unsustainable. CWU didn't renew and left on June 30, 2025.

Here's what happened after that:

1. July 1, 2025: The city takes back full control and extends the existing subleases so current users aren't cut off.
2. The interim year: The building holds city record storage and police and fire training. Subtenants include YMCA gym programs, Microsoft parking, and tutoring. The city adds no new public activities because it lacks the staff and budget to run them.
3. January 20, 2026: The council approves a three-phase study of whether to reuse the building for community purposes, put it to another use, or sell it.
4. April 21, 2026: Phase 1 findings on condition and cost reach the council.
5. July 1, 2026: Most subleases expire. The YMCA and the Microsoft parking lease stay.

The city's Building 120 page now shows Phase 1 as complete and Phase 2, the community-engagement step, as paused. In the meantime the city went looking for someone who could run the building.

Two Proposals Met Every Requirement

This past summer the city opened a four-week operator interest form, with an optional walkthrough of the building. Eight organizations responded. Staff screened each one against four basic requirements, listed in the September 15 council work session packet:

"ability to obtain required insurance, financial capacity to fund and staff the facility, commitment to community access, and experience operating a comparably sized facility."

Two organizations met all four and said they wouldn't need an ongoing city subsidy. The other six fell short on money, scale of experience, or an expected need for city support. The two that qualified offered different visions. The YMCA proposed a recreation and wellness hub, building on the gym programs it already runs there. Timberlake Church proposed a flexible community space. Both are expressions of interest, not proposals the city has accepted. The September session was for information only, and staff said they would come back later in the fall with a recommendation on leasing, selling, or running the building themselves. If you want to hear the discussion yourself, the city posted video of the September 15 presentation.

A decision on that recommendation is what the October budget message was anticipating. The proposed 2027–2028 budget keeps Building 120 funded for its current use, and the budget message expects an amendment once the lease-or-sell decision is made. Counting from October 13, that window runs from mid-December to mid-January. Frosty Fest on December 11 falls just before it opens.

A Map Change Is Moving at the Same Time

Separately from the operator question, the city has asked to change the property's future land-use designation from Neighborhood Residential to Mixed-Use Center. That change would open the way for a later rezone from R-6 to Community Business. The city's application lists the uses a Mixed-Use Center could allow: civic, community service, cultural, community gathering, recreation, and affordable or workforce housing. It also says further studies will determine the best use.

The city's reasoning is about location. The site sits on 228th Ave NE, a major road and transit route. It borders the shopping center to the north and lies just outside the Town Center boundary, with Town Center development to the west and south. It also falls inside the conceptual Inglewood Subarea in the Comprehensive Plan.

The environmental review comment period closed October 2, and the city issued a Determination of Non-Significance. At its October 15 meeting, the Planning Commission voted 4–0 to recommend that the council approve the designation change, according to OpenWashington's meeting record. The City Council's public hearing on the map change was scheduled for its regular meeting on November 17 at 6:30 p.m. If the council approves it, the zoning change itself goes through its own application and review by the Hearing Examiner. The Building 120 rezone page tracks each step.

Following It From Here

Here are the dates worth putting on the fridge next to the Frosty Fest flyer:

• November 17: Council public hearing on the land-use map change
• December 1 and December 15: Regular council meetings
• December 11: Frosty Fest inside Building 120
• Mid-December to mid-January: The window the budget message gave for the lease-or-sell decision

The city has named Janie Walzer as its contact on the Building 120 project page. In December, families in pajamas will be spending an evening in a building the YMCA has proposed as a wellness hub and Timberlake Church has proposed as a community space. The building has a stage, six classrooms, a possible kitchen, and a $4.8 million repair estimate, and its next chapter is due within weeks of the movie ending.

At Pacific NW Houses, we keep track of the places that shape life on the plateau, from Lake Sammamish's shoreline to the civic buildings along 228th. If you'd like help understanding what the decisions around Town Center and the Inglewood area could mean for the streets you know, we're glad to talk it through. Explore Pacific Northwest Homes.