Work on the environmentally friendly 303 Battery apartment complex in Belltown, overseen by Seattle’s Sustainable Living Innovations (SLI), has resumed due to a recent receivership agreement. The 15-story, 112-unit high-rise topped out last summer, but progress had been halted due to a multitude of liens levied against the developer earlier this year, according to a report in the Puget Sound Business Journal.
SLI entered a receivership agreement last month with its lender, Goldman Sachs, which enabled the bank to commence settling the liens. Phillip Caplan, responsible for SLI’s corporate affairs, said, “The receivership was the most efficient, expeditious way to move forward with the project.”
According to the records filed with King County, two liens against SLI have been discharged this month upon settlement. Arlan Collins, the CEO and co-founder of SLI, assured that contractors’ outstanding payments have started being processed, stating, “All the contractors will be paid.”
Financial hurdles surfaced for the developer following a delay in a planned acquisition by the special purpose acquisition company Churchill Capital Corp. V due to issues in the financial market, Collins mentioned. “We built through Covid, the concrete strike and now this current struggle that caused a holdup in our capital raising,” he explained in the report.
The agreement with Churchill Capital is expected to be finalized by December. Deals with SPACs like Churchill often precede a company’s initial public offering (IPO). Documents submitted to the Securities Exchange Commission reveal SLI’s plans to go public.
Once completed, the tower has a prospective buyer, Collins revealed. In October 2021, Equity Residential, a major multifamily real estate investment trust, agreed to purchase the building for an undisclosed sum.
Even amidst the hurdles encountered during the project, Collins maintains a positive outlook on their business model, which focuses on constructing highly efficient buildings. The ultra-sustainable 303 Battery, which broke ground in 2021, has been promoted as the first multifamily structure worldwide to comply with the net-zero energy guidelines established by the International Living Future’s Building Challenge program. The building is designed to consume a third of a typical building’s water supply and repurpose 80 percent of hot shower water for other uses. Additionally, its air conditioning system will operate on just 4 percent of the energy typically required.
The majority of the building was pre-fabricated, including its walls and floorboards, which were then assembled on-site by a team. “We are still extremely bullish on our product,” Collins stated, “We’ve been told by multiple groups around the country that we have the best technology on the planet. But it’s been tough because of the financial markets.”
