About 100 Kirkland business owners, city officials and interested citizens rushed through morning traffic to get to the Eastside Tennis Center in Totem Lake on Tuesday.

But it wasn’t to play a tennis match.

The 7:30 a.m. Kirkland Business Roundtable meeting was the first of many public outreach efforts to learn what the community wants out of the Cross Kirkland Corridor’s master plan. Those who attended were automatically deemed a member of the the city’s Cross Kirkland Corridor Founders Club.

“Let’s start this conversation, this process of imagination, to develop this corridor,” said Mayor Joan McBride. “Let the dreaming begin.”

And with ideas such as a Gondola transportation system or a brewery abutting the corridor, Guy Michaelson of Berger Partnership agrees that the sky is truly the limit.

“We’re only limited by our imagination,” Michaelson said, whose company is the chosen architecture firm to develop the master plan. “The Cross Kirkland Corridor is not just a trail, it can be so much more.”

Whether the corridor is a hub for eating, shopping, biking or a place to walk, its development is sure to have a positive impact on surrounding businesses. According to the city, 1,173 businesses with 10,904 employees are located within 2,000 feet (less than a half-mile) of the 5.75 mile long corridor.

But City Manager Kurt Triplett said the common idea for the master plan – a regional paved trail to be 30 feet from a regional transit line – will cost an estimated $115-$120 million to achieve together but “ultimately we’ll get there.”

And Lisa Picard with Skanska USA Commercial Development said it’s an investment that would have a positive economic impact longterm.

Picard described that a business can flourish simply by being located near the corridor’s trails and future transportation access. Although the lifespan for businesses has dramatically decreased in the past 70 years, she said successful businesses have found a way to sustain themselves by finding connections.

She anticipates tenants of a multi-use building called Stone34, which is currently being constructed in Fremont, would benefit from the nearby Burke-Gilman Trail.

“[Brooks Sports, Inc., the major tenant of Stone34,] will create an urban trail head with their business by creating a large open plaza, and by hosting running events and activities,” Picard said.

Similarly, one perk of the Cross Kirkland Corridor’s master plan will be to attract new business to the current companies nearby, such as Astronics Advanced Electronic Systems Corporation and EvergreenHealth Medical Center.

The Google expansion and Transit-Oriented Development projects are also expected to benefit from the corridor’s development, as well as the Par Mac Business District that is a “sleeping giant that will awaken with the redevelopment of the corridor that threads through it,” said Kirkland Business Roundtable members.

Michaelson outlined the multitude of ways the corridor could attract people from across the country by implementing designs that include visually appealing lighting and art that celebrates the history of the railroad with a strong connection to the neighboring greenery and wetlands.

“I know Kirkland is a community with a lot of soul,” Michaelson said. “The Cross Kirkland Corridor should reflect the soul of this community.”

Near the end of the event, people were invited to post their ideas on a large map of the Cross Kirkland Corridor. Northwest University officials want a corridor that will promote fitness, Imagine Housing hopes the trails will provide access and connect diversity and the Eastside Tennis Center wants a trail to connect people to Totem Lake Park. Others hope the trail will “get people out of cars.”

A city-wide Community Planning Day will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on June 8 at Kirkland City Hall for the public to learn about ideas for the master plan and voice their own before the master plan is finished by May 2014.

To submit ideas for the Cross Kirkland Corridor master plan, email Kirkland2035@kirklandwa.gov.

Correction: The estimated $115-$120 million will cover the cost of both a paved trail and a regional transit line, estimated to be about $50-$60 million each.