The Seattle Times is reporting that Amazon’s already major presence north of downtown is about to get even bigger:
The three contiguous blocks Amazon is buying are bounded roughly by Westlake Avenue, Sixth Avenue and Blanchard Street. Most of the property is parking lots; but other users include the King Cat Theater, Toyota of Seattle and the Sixth Avenue Inn motel.
Seneca Group, a Seattle real-estate advisory firm working with Clise and Amazon, filed papers with Seattle’s Department of Planning and Development on Wednesday for “development of an approximately 1 million-square-foot office building with accessory parking” on each of the three blocks.
Times says the online retailing giant has purchased the Denny Triangle land and plans to build three major office towers. Zoning in the area allows heights of up to 500 feet. No price for the deal was announced by Times says past bids on the properties topped $600 million.
We reported late last year on social media leader Facebook establishing its Seattle headquarters just across I-5 from the Hill.
And just when the condo market was starting to bounce back, there go the views.
For the record, the article reports that the bid topped $600 million for the entire Clise holdings in the Denny Triangle. I think this is terribly exciting. That area is o awful with all those parking lots. Good ridden.
I used to work close to King Cat and that whole area is absolutely horrible. The parking lot wastelands completely ruin the neighborhood and make the area desolate and dangerous to walk through. I’ve been almost mugged twice around 6th and Bell as well as chased by a screaming guy with a shopping cart and repeatedly propositioned by skeezy men in vehicles at 6AM while walking to work.
Now, I also hate Belltown (current place of work) because the highrise condos/vertical gated communities suck the soul out of everything so I don’t imagine Amazon will necessarily make it a pleasant place to spend time. However, this is far better than what it is now which is the goddamn Thunderdome.
Seriously.. the views are in such decline in Seattle. Such a shame, one of the things that really has kept me here.
Besides office buildings, Amazon will also be bringing in lots of activity and hopefully more security to at least those immediate blocks. Hopefully this will make it a more attractive area for Cornish students to live (the school has a dorm down there now, but the experiences have not been positive).
Building so close to downtown (as opposed to some far-flung suburb) makes it easy for Amazon workers to walk, bike, or take transit to work from other parts of the city. More people living in the city, paying property taxes in the city, spending money in the city.