As its longtime Capitol Hill developer sought to extend Pike/Pine’s entertainment district borders to the south with his Central Agency building, a new wave of neighborhood energy beyond nightlife and dining has also been harnessed. After a $100,000+ work space buildout inside the overhauled E Seneca warehouse, software and design company Pilot Lab plans to join the roster of companies opening offices on Capitol Hill.

“Capitol Hill’s a thriving great place for design and tech firms,” Pilot Lab co-founder Ian Sands tells CHS. “There’s more and more happening there.”

The 10-person tech concern is part of a small wave of companies that have found Pike/Pine homes as developers in the neighborhood have increasingly tried to diversify investments in the area beyond the standard restaurant + retail + apartments mixed-use recipe typically deployed.

Last year, CHS reported on the trio of tech firms moving in to developer Liz Dunn’s latest creation, Chop House Row. Last month, the preservation-friendly office and retail development planned to rise above 11th Ave’s Kelly Springfield/Value Village building passed its first design review. If the plans are seen through to fruition, three floors of office space will eventually rise above 11th.

Destined to join the Central Agency building, Pilot Lab, which Sands calls a “design and envisioning agency” and an “incubator” for long-term product ideas, works with companies like Spotify and Skype on both short-term problem solving to improve the user experience, and on what Sands calls “envisioning work” — helping those companies think about what comes next for their apps ten or more years down the line.

“A lot of our focus is on the design and user experience side,” said Sands. “How does that relate to real people and real people’s needs?”

The company currently employs 10 people in Seattle with plans to add more. It also maintains a London office.

Pilot Lab is making the switch from WeWork, a co-working space in South Lake Union, graduating to their own office on the Hill. Like other companies opening offices in the cultural hub, Sands said the atmosphere, activity, and convenience of Capitol Hill were big draws.

The move also comes against a backdrop of concerns about the changing nature of the neighborhood and the influence of affluent technology companies and their growing legions of young, well-paid workers. But the reasons for Pilot Lab’s move aren’t that different than what draws most people to the area.

“There’s all the surrounding cultural amenities, great food, bars, restaurants, music,” said Sands. “It’s just a great neighborhood.” Sands and another founder also live on the Hill, and the convenience of walking to work was an added bonus.

The company is looking to expand, and Sands said a Capitol Hill office was also an asset for recruiting young creatives. “It’s got the right sort of hip and kind of lively vibe you kind of want to be in and around,” he said.

Capitol Hill developer Jerry Everard and business partner Alex Rosenast purchased the warehouse and overhauled the 1917-built structure with an aim to create a new food and drink-focused marketplace south of Pike/Pine. The Central Agency name was a nod to one of the early tenants of the building. Everard said he has no idea what Central Agency did but said some people believe the building once stored secret files for the FBI. “People say they had no idea the building was here,” he said. “I think that was the point.” With Lark and its siblings Bitter/Raw and Slab as the centerpiece of the project, and Canadian-born sandwich concern Meat and Bread, the Central Agency plan was extended beyond food and drink to make room for office tenants.

Pilot Lab hopes to be up and running in its new space, with a planned capacity of 20-30 people, by early fall 2016. Finding space for an office on Capitol Hill was no small task – Sands said the E Seneca building the company eventually landed on was found through a friend and was not on the open market at the time.

“It’s really hard to come by the kind of space that we wanted,” said Sands. “We’re super excited to get up on the Hill.”