Is Seattle Doomed to Overbuilding?

Every boom brings some risk of overbuilding. But for every boom doomers, there's boom boomers. (We're just trying to get one of these catch on so we can use them in Scrabble.) What side are you on? Come hear the debate at our fourth annual Seattle State of the Market event Sept. 17 at 1201 3rd Ave.

Wallace Properties’ Kevin Wallace, who will be speaking at the event, is a bit skeptical that all those apartments will have occupants. According to Dupre + Scott, Kevin tells us, the number of apartment units in the five Seattle neighborhoods of Downtown, Belltown, South Lake Union, Capitol Hill, and Eastlake will double between 2012 and 2017. “An additional 10,307 units are forecast to be delivered to these neighborhoods between 2015 and 2017 alone,” he says. “This is as many new apartment units in five neighborhoods as there are residents in Woodinville. What could possibly go wrong?”    

Still, the demand for apartments is there in many markets, and Wallace Properties recently broke ground on a 24-unit, six-story project called 47+7 in the University District. It’s the first project to use a component-based construction system devised by Innovative Building Technologies and the Seattle-based architectural firm CollinsWoerman, the only pre-fabricated system on the market that’s scalable for mid- and high-rise construction. And it’s a fast system: 47+7 will be completed by year's end. Hear more from Kevin and other market experts at our event: sign up now!