It’s another apartment tower on deck for First Hill, this one aimed at senior housing.
Seattle’s Columbia Pacific Advisors announced last week it has entered a deal to build a 23-story senior housing tower at Terry and James on property owned by the Archdiocese of Seattle.
The tower at 620 Terry Ave, located across Cherry St. from the Frye Art Museum, would be comprised of independent living apartments, assisted living units, and memory care suites. The design from Ankrom Moisan Architects call for 1,800 square feet of retail and 188 parking stalls.
The project would require the demolition of a single family home, office building, and surface parking lot — all owned by the Archdiocese, which will to retain ownership of the property.
“The ground lease will provide important long-term funding for Archdiocesan programs and for the Cathedral’s many social outreach ministries, while preserving church ownership of the property,” said Archdiocese spokesperson Greg Magnoni in a statement.
Columbia expects to start construction next year and open the building in 2019. By that time, another Columbia project on the opposite side of the Swedish First Hill Campus should be humming with non-senior housing residents and organic food shopping. The developer’s planned 16-story, 288-unit tower at Broadway and Madison will bring a Whole Foods Market where Capitol Hill and First Hill high-rise zoning meet.
Meanwhile, another high-rise also adjacent to the Frye is now making its way through design review. The First Hill museum announced plans earlier this year to develop a parking lot it owns at Terry and Cherry into a 450 unit, mixed-use project. Plans for the Westbank Frye Highrise call for two residential towers connected by a roof-top walkway, 5,500 square feet of commercial space and underground parking for 250 vehicles.
CHS previously wrote about how senior citizens, many of whom have lived in the area for a long time, are choosing to stay around the Hill, either in their homes, or in some of the new and established facilities which cater to older folks. The U.S. Census estimates that 21% of residents in the 98112 ZIP code are 60 or older.
New large senior developments have not boded so well for some of the area’s smaller housing providers. Competition was at least part of the reason the Gaffney House announced it will close at 17th and E Madison after serving Alzheimer and dementia residents for years.
288 units with 188 spots for parking. See what you can do when you build taller? Much better use of space than 20 units here, 20 units there over on Capitol Hill. And it only takes half a of a small block to build on and the quality will be undoubtedly better than the pressboard structures we’re seeing.
First Hill is doing it right.
Exactly.
Couldn’t agree more. They’re not making any more land, so best to make the most of it. Density is the answer, if done wisely. The nickel and diming with smaller buildings doesn’t really scale all that well.
This appears to be yet another retirement home that only affluent seniors can afford. What we need is more senior housing for low-income folks, such as what is provided by Seattle Senior Housing, and this means that the public sector will have to step up to the challenge. The private sector is mainly interested in developments which make alot of money.
Satisfying demand for 280 higher income households will surely help relieve competition for the lower cost places.
More supply will result in freeing up some of the lower priced housing as some people ‘move on up.’ First Hill has quite the variety of senior housing from both ends of the spectrum.
I question what you two are predicting. Why would seniors in lower-cost places move, when they obviously made the choice to live in such places because they can’t afford the more expensive ones? (supply in the higher-end market….Parkshore, Mirabella, Skyline, etc has not been a problem). Also, many residents of the expensive places have moved from the eastside and other suburbs, so if this continues for the new place they won’t be “freeing up” Seattle locations.
We need more housing, all the possible types. Low, medium, high end. Go to Europe and you might find them all types on the same street, sometimes in the same block.
It’s a shame that the Hill didn’t get a Link station, perhaps in another 40 years.
I agree; Buildings should be allowed to go much higher near the light rail stations. Maybe if all these new apartment buildings were allowed to go higher, it could take pressure off of some of our single family homes from being torn down.