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Developer behind Bonney Watson deal has plans for two six-story buildings to join Broadway — UPDATE

Last week, the designs were finalized on one of the most significant development projects Broadway has ever seen. Consider this part two.

Mill Creek Residential and the architects at Weber Thompson are readying plans for two six-story buildings to flank Cal Anderson Park atop the site currently home to the soon to be dearly departed Bonney Watson funeral home, extending a pulse of “transit oriented development” south from Capitol Hill Station.

The companies plan to unveil the initiative publicly Monday night at the monthly meeting of the Pike Pine Urban Neighborhood Council — “In order to smooth the process, the applicant will be providing light snacks and beverages” — as the second most significant new development lined up for Broadway moves toward a November 1st start of the public design review process.

Design Review: 1732 + 1812 Broadway

Here is how the developers describe the ambitious project:

The Broadway Commercial Corridor is recognized as both Seattle’s longest continuous pedestrian commercial street and most vibrant and interesting commercial street. The blocks adjacent to the project site have the highest pedestrian volumes in the neighborhood due to proximity to SCCC, the Park, and Station. Broadway is noted for activity day and night thanks to its eclectic mix of shops and services as well as its prominent gay, eclectic, and street youth cultures. Redeveloping the existing parking lot and two story commercial structure with a variety of commercial uses and housing for a diverse demographic, with likely participation in the MFTE program, will stitch together a gap in the existing urban fabric. The positioning between these neighborhood features provides an opportunity to enhance the entry corridor of East Howell Street and create an inviting pedestrian gateway experience oriented toward the Park. Critical components to creating this gateway include; a strong massing for gateway identification at the larger neighborhood context with better activating the current inactive pedestrian experience with porosity and eyes on the street at ground level for safe vibrant pedestrian-oriented streets.

(Images: Mill Creek Residential and Weber Thompson)

The project’s two buildings will rise on the funeral home site and its parking lot, bisected by Howell. The larger north building will rise 65 feet and include 134 apartment units, with 5,500 square feet of commercial space and underground parking for 114 vehicles. Its southern counterpart destined for the funeral home site will also reach 65 feet with 87 new apartments, 3,000 square feet of retail, plus parking for 23.

UPDATE 10/17/2017: The interaction with Cal Anderson Park will be the “most critical opportunity” at the site, Sean Hyatt, managing director for Mill Creek’s West Coast operations, said following Monday night’s meeting with community representatives.

Hyatt, who said he believes the meeting went very well, said that his company is focused on the plan for 65-foot buildings and not banking on any changes in zoning under the Housing Affordability and Livability Agenda. “HALA is very complicated and very politicized,” Hyatt said, adding that developers like Mill Creek are “phenomenally incentivized to avoid” investing in that kind of environment. He also agreed that higher construction costs associated with different styles of construction that would come into play with building higher are prohibitive.

Hyatt also told CHS that the Bonney Watson parcels might be one of the last current opportunities on Capitol Hill for a large developer. “We need a certain size deal to (create) an economically feasible environment,” Hyatt said. On Capitol Hill, “those deals are fewer and farther between.”

But Hyatt said, with its proximity to downtown, the neighborhood should expect new generations of large projects in the future. “The short answer is Capitol Hill has a 160 year plus history so there is always something going on,” Hyatt said. “There will absolutely be opportunity up there. It’s like a forest. It’s evergreen. Its location, with transit, lidding I-5… Capitol Hill will just get better.”

As for the current development, Hyatt said one very unique element for the project compared to other area construction will be the “pretty aggressive plan for reconfiguring Howell.” The street will remain open to traffic but the developers hope to create a stronger pedestrian connection to Cal Anderson’s western entrance with lots of landscaping, pavement reconfiguration, and a more “meandering” approach to the park. There will even be “festival lighting” running between the buildings at some point if plans play out.

The developers say, though the structures will be separated by a public street, they intend for the building’s design and management to bridge the gap:

Although development will occur on two separate parcels the buildings will be designed to create one cohesive resident community with shared management, ample resident amenities and outdoor space. Design will incorporate opportunities for maximizing light and views to the apartment homes, creating overlooks and encouraging people-watching. The buildings will work together toward a shared design concept with similar massing, materials and detailing in support of creating a vibrant transit-oriented development.

This new pulse of big design review activity in the core of Broadway follows last week’s final approval of the designs for four buildings to surround Capitol Hill Station. Developer Gerding Edlen leads that project with designs from Hewitt and Schemata WorkshopCapitol Hill Housing will develop and operate affordable housing component of the project. Apartments will be spread across the four project sites, combining to make 428 new units. 176 of those will be affordable housing reserved for those under 60% Area Median Income (or below $40,320 for one person; $51,840 for three people). The station’s development’s retail component is planned to include a grocer and a daycare facility.

For the funeral home land and its rare surface parking lot, the emergence of the plans this summer for the Broadway property ended a bout of intrigue after the Bonney Watson property — touted as one of the artery’s last “key development opportunities” — hit the market in early 2017. Bonney-Watson’s Seattle history dates to 1868. In 2013, CHS talked with CEO Cameron Smock about the history — and future — of the Capitol Hill funeral home. When Smock joined Bonney-Watson as a funeral director and embalmer nearly 30 years ago, the company handled about 600 deaths annually at its Broadway location. In recent years, that number had dropped to around 350, he told CHS, as demographics shifted and traditions changed. A higher percentage of services also shifted to cremation, a lower cost alternative, “This neighborhood has changed dramatically,” Smock told CHS at the time. “Our business was built on the families who built their families on Capitol Hill. Many of them have left.”

In taking a route toward 65-foot heights and the typical five floors of residential above ground-floor commercial, Mill Creek is forging ahead with waiting for possible zoning changes from Seattle affordability initiatives.  Under HALA proposals, both sides of Broadway between Howell and E Roy could be slated for upzoning that would allow for seven story buildings with commercial use throughout the entire building.

Mill Creek and Weber Thompson, meanwhile, have been active in the neighborhood. The Portland-headquartered Mill Creek Residential recently opened the Modera to fill in a Tetris-shaped set of open parcels on 11th Ave. Mill Creek’s agreed on price tag for the Bonney Watson property and parking lot is not yet publicly available but a trust associated with the company is listed on paperwork as the contract purchaser of the property. The monolithic 1962-era building that stands on the site is now destined for demolition.

 

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Whichever
Whichever
6 years ago

Make ’em 16 stories and now we’re talking. 6 stories? That close to train and other transit? Pfft.

sna
sna
6 years ago
Reply to  Whichever

Not a construction expert, but going higher than 6 stories means having to use more expensive construction materials (steel/concrete).

Timmy73
Timmy73
6 years ago
Reply to  Whichever

Yes, taller buildings require more expense initially but over X floor the costs are returned. Taller buildings are built all over the world and are economically feasible but CH zoning is currently restrictive. I hope that changes.

Bob Knudson
Bob Knudson
6 years ago

We’ve already had the usual complaint about “not tall enough,” and now we await the usual complaints about providing parking.

I think this is a positive development for Broadway….hopefully under HALA there will be at least some affordable units in the buildings. I sure wish a similar development would occur in the 300 block of the street (the old Broadway Grill space and the property just north of that)….that area has been underutilized/vacant for far too long. It seems like a prime property and I don’t understand why some developer hasn’t jumped in there.

Sloopy
Sloopy
6 years ago

That will definitely be a better use of space than a funeral home, especially so close to a major transit station. That said, I don’t look forward to another Weber Thompson metal box.

Mutha Mary
Mutha Mary
6 years ago

I wish we could fill the empty store fronts already existing on Broadway, many of which have been vacant for years. The Broadway Grill has been gone for over 3 years, the Dilettante space empty for 2 years, Einstein Bagels gone over a year, now Subway’s moved out.. We’ll have 3 doc-in-a-box walk-in clinics within 5 blocks of each other once the old Charlie’s space opens one. Why?! How many more hipster coffee shops, brewpubs and upscale restaurants do we need? Where is the diversity of food and goods? You can’t get a decent breakfast or bagel on the Hill. And will any of this added housing be affordable, i.e. less than $2K a month? This used to be a vibrant, welcoming, diverse neighborhood. Now Broadway rivals the Ave for garbage and decay.

COMTE
COMTE
6 years ago
Reply to  Mutha Mary

So long as Glo’s is around you can still get a decent breakfast on the Hill.

Jim98122x
Jim98122x
6 years ago
Reply to  Mutha Mary

Where is the “like” button when you need it? So true.
As for Glo’s…ok, yeah. Should she have added, “without standing for 45 minutes waiting on the sidewalk”?
One basic (non-hipster) breakfast joint ON BROADWAY isn’t enough. Meanwhile we’re drowning in coffeehouses and places for $14 “craft cocktails”.

Bob Knudson
Bob Knudson
6 years ago
Reply to  Mutha Mary

I mostly agree with your comments, but I take issue with your statement that there is no diversity of places to eat. Broadway has everything from very upscale (Altura) to moderate (Poppy’s) to many inexpensive Asian restaurants, and of course there is always The Deluxe and Dick’s.

Adhdrb
Adhdrb
6 years ago

The zoning, affordable housing requirements and parking regulations are not going to change before this project is developed. Please weigh in on the building and landscape design by sending an email to PRC.gov. Reference the address: 1732 Broadway. If you can’t muster that, leave design comments here. What do you want to see in terms of design? What kind of finishing materials would you like/not like to see? Should the buildings read like one development or two distinct buildings? Should there be commercial space (I.e, cafes) facing the park along Nagle st or just along Broadway? Should the buildings have massing, proportions, and materials consistent with the historic character of buildings in the neighborhood or should they be more modern? Should they blend into the background or be prominent architectual features of the neighborhood? Should they be modulated to break up the massing or is less modulation preferable? What types of windows (size, pattern) would you like to see? What buildings old and new are the best/worst precedent for what you would like to see here? How should they define a sense of place consistent with Capitol Hill? What does that mean to you? How should the landscape design and architecture interact with the park?

John M. Feit
John M. Feit
6 years ago

Great questions — I hope you can make it this evening! And I hope others can too.

Zach
Zach
6 years ago

Re the developer PR: ” Broadway is noted for activity day and night thanks to its eclectic mix of shops and services as well as its prominent gay, eclectic, and street youth cultures.”

So they are positing “street youth culture” (which generally can mean/overlap homeless youth) as a selling point? I suppose since all these units will be inaccessible to homeless youth, the developers will have the lovely ambiance they desire OUTSIDE while people observe from their cozy vantage. Nauseating.