The City of Everett selected a straightaway track segment east of downtown as the preferred location of a multimodal train/bus station, to replace the existing Amtrak station at Bond Street, in 1993. The Everett City Council chose a two-block industrial site bordered by Pacific Avenue to the north in 1995, estimating a cost of $30 million and an opening in 1998. Everett Mayor Ed Hansen proposed adding two additional stories to the station building to house classrooms and space for career counseling services, inspired by a similar project in Oakland, California. The Sound Transit Board passed a resolution in February 1999 allowing the use of $14 million to begin work on the Everett Multimodal Facility, which was to be the terminus for Sounder commuter rail and Sound Transit Express bus service. A groundbreaking ceremony was held on July 13, 2000, allowing for construction on Everett Station to begin. Sound Transit began with the construction of the Pacific Avenue overpass, replacing an earlier at-grade crossing, that opened on November 14, 2001 at a cost of $20 million. The station building was designed by the Zimmer Gunsul Frasca Partnership and built by Wilder Construction Company in 2000 and 2001.