News
THE FUTURE OF DOWNTOWN SEATTLE
February 9, 2012
| With the tech sector rising and the viaduct coming down, there's been a lot of talk about what downtown will look like in 10 years. This week, we asked two of our all-star panelists for our Bisnow Future of Downtown event (Feb. 22 at the W Hotel) to answer three questions: What does downtown need to prosper? Where will the next wave of tenants settle? And where can they get good takeout? |
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| Amazon's relocation has lifted all boats around South Lake Union, but UrbanVisions CEO Greg Smith fully expects the next wave to center around SoDo. Seattle, Greg notes, is a "silicon forest" and continues to attract tons of creative energy. (Let's just not get caught up in seeing the forest for the fiber optic cables.) "It's all about the tech talent," he tells us, noting that Pioneer Square is already home to growing social gaming startups like Doubledown Interactive and Zhurosoft, which may not have much inclination to ensconse themselves, Die Hard-style, in high-rise office towers. |
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| Plans are well under way to extend the Link light rail system from Microsoft's Redmond campus to the International District/Chinatown Station, something Greg sees as a huge boon for the area. "Seattle's past and Seattle's future is south downtown," Greg says. That bodes well for UrbanVisions, currently in the process of developing 200 Occidental, a 200k SF mixed-use building, as well as a 1.3M SF office tech campus east of the Century Link Field. What does the city need to do to assure new projects prosper? "Keep the streets safe and parking available for retailers' success," he tells us. |
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| As for takeout, Greg says you can't go wrong with a BLT and lemon rice soup from Cherry Street Coffee, whose cheery logo seems to pop up on 1st Avenue about every two blocks between Clay Street and Pioneer Square. "They're awesome," he assures us. (Since Greg's an owner, we're sure he's only a little biased.) |
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| Because even the most hardcore software developers occasionally need to sleep (they're working on robots that can fix that fact), Security Properties and Madrona Ridge Residential COO Tim Overland would like to see more apartments closer to the urban center. "You look at the supply of downtown apartments, and one could argue that it's relatively low," he says. Security Properties is in the process of developing a 380-unit, 40-story residential tower with 5k SF of ground-floor retail in the Denny Triangle. Tim tells us he's also focused on Curve, a $40M, 184-unit U-District apartment project on 11th Avenue Northeast and Northeast 47th Street. The apartments will be built in conjunction with UW, which has leased the land, and Seattle Children's Hospital, which is providing some of the financing and whose staff may get first dibs on the units. There's also a Columbia City project in the works, set to go up on the Rainier Avenue South and South Edmunds Street. Both are likely to break ground in 2013. |
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| Security Properties built the distinctive, Gaudi-esque Epicenter in Fremont, which is convenient to, well, everything (they don't call it the center of the universe for nothing.) Tim goes there for Paseo, a cash-only Caribbean restaurant also located in Ballard. "Paseo is the best takeout," Tim informs us. "Prawns in red sauce is why." |
