Part of CHS’s core mission is helping our readers with change. Here is a look back at 2022 through the prism of change to come as new waves of development have returned to Capitol Hill after a pandemic lull. Below, you will find the planned mixed-use development and housing projects CHS covered around the Hill through the past year. We’ve organized them from largest to smallest by unit count. There are also new forces at play. New affordable development should hopefully move forward more quickly with new design review exemptions for low income housing. Meanwhile, there is a robust pool of public funding available to shift new projects planned as market-rate apartments into the city’s growing pool of affordable housing. There is also work to undo some of the injustice and inequity of the past with efforts like the William Grose Center for Cultural Innovation and Enterprise, Africatown’s center for “economic empowerment and community-driven development,” that opened in the Central District this year. The stories of these new developments — and the stories of the people who will call the new buildings home — will come in 2023 and beyond as the waves of change continue reshaping the neighborhood.
400 units — 1410 E John: “The new project will replace the existing 44,000-square-foot Safeway and its adjacent surface parking lot. The Safeway was built in 1998 and as of 2021, had an appraised value of $39.48 million, according to county tax records. In its place, developer Greystar and architect Weber Thompson propose a new, 50,000-square-foot Safeway, about market rate 400 apartment units, some new, smaller retail locations and an underground parking lot for about 350 cars, according to the design review proposal…”
293 units — 112 10th Ave E: “This week brings the first design review for a project that will add nearly 300 new apartment units across the street from the busy light rail facility and its collection of apartments and thousands of square feet of new retail space. The new project from San Francisco-based developers Carmel Partners and Seattle-based Neiman Taber Architects will also create hundreds of new homes across from Cal Anderson Park…”
171 units — 900 12th Ave: “The public design process to create a new home for arts nonprofit Photographic Center Northwest in a new seven-story mixed-use development on the site of the center’s 100-year-old 12th Ave building begins this week. The Central Area Design Review Board is set to take up the first design proposals for the Focus on 12th Apartments development Thursday night. Plans call for 171 apartment units above the new photography center and underground parking for around 42 vehicles….”
160 units — 1661 E Olive Way: “A group of two and three story buildings will make way for a seven-story mixed use project at 1661 E Olive Way under a development proposal set to come before the East Design Review Board this week. CHS reported earlier this year as rumblings restarted after a massive 2019 real estate deal with Vancouver, Canada-based real estate investment and management company Low Tide Properties paying $21 million for the collection of commercial buildings including the former Fred Wildlife events space. The four existing buildings span the block between Boylston and Belmont on the south side of Olive. The project area is currently occupied by the former Coldwell Banker building which fronts on Olive. It stretches along Boylston/Belmont to include the low-slung office/warehouse buildings and also includes the existing parking lot.”
134 units — 12th Ave at E Olive St: “Last week, the eight-story, 134-unit project from Mack Real Estate and Runberg Architecture Group for the land currently occupied by the former Car Tender auto shop, Bergman’s Lock and Key, and the old Scratch Deli building won final approval from the Seattle Department of Construction & Inspections director. CHS reported here on the project’s successful final design review last summer as the development garnered support from pro-housing advocates and residents providing public comment and overcame criticism over its height, bulk, and scale and its relationship to the surrounding streets that mix new apartment buildings like 12th Ave Arts, older buildings, duplexes and triplexes, and the occasional single family style home.”- 127 units — 119 12th Ave: “The proposal from developers Kamiak with designs by Hybrid and Hewitt would create an 8-story, 127-unit apartment building with street level retail above a 42-space underground parking garage.”
- 107 units — 2210 E Cherry: “It will still require the Seattle City Council’s blessing on a proposed rezone of its corner but the Acer House project, a planned five and a half-story, Afrofuturist design development at 23rd and Cherry, could complete the city’s design review process this week…”
95 units — 229 Broadway E: “Cannon Commercial is joined in the development by TAP Collaborative and $3 million in affordable housing funding from the city announced in 2021’s round of Office of Housing grants. A company registered to Joe Cannon and TAP’s Rebecca Ralston purchased the property for $6.25 million in 2018, according to King County records…”
84 units — Broadway and Pine: “This week, plans for an eight-story, 84-unit housing project at the heart of Broadway and Pine will be reviewed by administrators with the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections. The publicly-financed affordable development will move forward without the slower, more expensive public design review process under emergency rules passed in spring of 2020 to help keep design and landmark reviews on track during the pandemic restrictions. The plans appear worthy of the rush. Part of the YouthCare South Annex project at Broadway and Pine. Community Roots Housing is leading the development to create eight stories of affordable housing and a homeless youth “education and employment academy” in this core of Capitol Hill. The project is expecting to serve 250 to 300 individuals ages 18 to 24 per year at the training academy. Plans call for an “adaptive reuse” project to overhaul and upgrade the existing structures including the historic Booth Building that will remain two to three stories along E Pine and Broadway. The affordable housing apartment building is planned to rise eight stories on the site of the current surface parking lot.”- 82 units — 2925 E Madison: “City People’s announces final growing season as one of Seattle’s longest running land use battles will end with 2024 start on Madison Valley PCC redevelopment…”
- 75 units — 1013 E Republican: “Three existing homes, each dating to the first years of the 20th century, will be demolished. According to tax records, two of the three are single family homes, while the third is a duplex. In a trade a city desperate for new housing should be happy to make, an eight-story, 75-unit building will rise across from Broadway Hill Park.”
- 73 units — 1800 E Olive Way: “Revived redevelopment plans for a new project that will demolish E Olive Way’s All Seasons Cleaners will come in front of the East Design Review Board this week a vision for an eight-story mass timber building within sight of the Capitol Hill Station entrance.”
70 units — 523 15th Ave E: “After years of process, pandemic, and soil remediation, construction is ready to begin on the five-story, nearly 70-unit mixed-use apartment building with underground parking for 21 vehicles that will reshape the corner of Capitol Hill’s 15th and Mercer.”- 49 units — 131 13th Ave E: “The site is at 131 13th Ave E., just south of the corner of East John. On the block currently are a mix of single-family and multi-family homes. The proposal calls for tearing down an existing two-story building and detached garage. The structure was built as a single-family home in 1912, but has since been carved up into three apartments. The 1903-built single family home on the corner would remain in place and neighbor the new project.”
The future of 310 11th Ave E
71 units — 228 11th Ave E + 29 units — 300 11th Ave E + 41 units — 310 11th Ave E + 70 units — 311 11th Ave E — Three new 8-story buildings and a 7-story throwback on 11th Ave E: “A crop of new eight-story apartment buildings — and a seven-story throwback — is set to rise along two blocks of 11th Ave E in a burst of development activity that will create more than 200 new homes just north of Capitol Hill Station and only a little off Broadway. True to form for the transit-friendly, densely populated area, none of the four projects include plans for expensive underground motor vehicle parking garages. Each will also replace either old, single-family style homes and duplexes, or small apartment buildings. Seeds for the projects have been planted over the last two years with some permitting starting as far back as 2020 as the pandemic first took hold.”
Pride Place is on track to wrap up construction in late 2023
Meanwhile, we learned about some projects a little further in the future including a planned 1,300 units on First Hill next to St. James, and future student housing at the site of Seattle Central’s massive E Pine parking structure. Other major projects are already under construction and taking shape including Pride Place’s 118 units of LGBTQ-affirming senior housing which is nearing the half way point of construction on Broadway and the 428 units of market rate and affordable housing plus new commercial tenants in 23rd and Union’s 2022-opened Midtown Square.
This report is a reminder, for those who constantly complain that we are not adding new housing fast enough, that there is indeed LOTS of development going on, for better or for worse.
It’s definitely good to see some at least some construction happening but this nowhere close to addressing the actual need. I recommend this Atlantic article to get some sense of the actual housing shortage in the US.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/11/us-housing-supply-shortage-crisis-2022/672240/