Design firm Weber Thompson Design of Seattle on July 12 discussed preliminary plans to build housing near existing Facebook offices that would serve employees of the social networking giant and the community at large.
Seattle developer Capstone Partners is proposing to build the project on a site at 1115 Dexter Ave. N., near Facebook’s Dexter Station office building in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood. The project site, which will cover 27,819 square feet, is located at the southwest corner of Dexter Avenue North and Highland Drive.
The apartment project will be a seven-story building with 170 apartment units and 100 parking spaces to be located below grade. The new development will be located not too far from Amazon’s South Lake Union headquarters.
Estimated start of construction could be the third quarter of 2018, Weber Thompson Principal Jeff Reibman said.
“There’s no question the demand for housing continues to be strong as the hiring continues, and we’re anticipating more growth” at the area’s tech firms, Reibman said.
As far as amenities in the Dexter units, he said: “We’re still evaluating the tech market and what the needs and desires of the tenants in this area will be, not just now but two years from now, three years from now, when the project opens its doors.”
Weber Thompson’s proposed development is located at the corner of Dexter Avenue North and Highland Drive, within the designated South Lake Union Urban Center. The project site fronts Aurora Avenue North on the west, Highland Drive to the north and Dexter Avenue North to the east in the South Lake Union Urban Center, an area Weber Thompson said has deep industrial roots and experienced significant growth in the past decade.
While the neighborhood is comprised of a wide mix of building uses, the design firm said, “most new development falls into either residential or commercial office uses, with a growing number of retail shops, restaurants and cafes coming in along Dexter.”
A 65-foot grade difference between Dexter and Aurora will help shape the Dexter development. The eastern building will be seven stories above Dexter, while the western building will be six stories above Aurora.
Vehicle and bike parking will occupy much of the below-grade area. Capstone’s development also calls for a club room, roof deck, exercise facilities and 100 resident car parking stalls.
Weber Thompson made its Early Design Guidance presentation about the Seattle apartment proposal as another new apartment complex located near a growing tech firm is moving forward, this one near Facebook’s corporate headquarters in Menlo Park, California, according to Yahoo News. The proposed housing development in Silicon Valley will include a grocery store, a hotel and retail, the Yahoo report said.
In Silicon Valley, Facebook and Northern California residential real estate developer St. Anton Partners are in partnership to develop a $120 million, 630,000-square-foot complex, called Anton Menlo.
The Silicon Valley complex, which is proposed to have 1,500 housing units, 1.75 million square feet of office space, with retail space and a hotel, would dwarf the project proposed for Seattle’s 1115 Dexter Avenue North.
Even so, Seattle’s proposed complex joins a trend that has seen other developers building housing on or near tech campuses.
In Seattle, for instance, Vulcan Real Estate is building four office buildings topped with market-rate apartments for Alphabet-owned Google near Lake Union Park. And AMLI Residential Properties Trust is putting up a luxury apartment tower next to a new office building that Amazon has leased.
Even non-tech major employers are getting in the act.
Stanford University entered into an agreement two years ago to lease the entire 167-unit apartment complex called The Colonnade near the border of Los Altos, Palo Alto and Mountain View, to help make additional rental housing available for Stanford faculty and staff.
“Throughout its history, Stanford has developed and provided housing to meet the needs of its faculty, staff and students, ideally near the Stanford community,” said Jean Snider, managing director of real estate in a prepared statement submitted to The Registry at the time. “This lease is one of a host of ways we can address what has become a real concern, particularly as we compete to recruit the best faculty from other parts of the country, where they experience very different real estate markets.”
In May of this year, Stanford decided to purchase the apartment complex, paying $130 million, or roughly $781,437 per unit, to acquire the 167-unit Colonnade complex.
