Development opportunities and sites across Seattle’s central business district are becoming fewer in number, and one active development company is looking to expand its opportunities in the city. Miami-based Crescent Heights acquired this week a site located at 807 Fourth Ave. for $21.5 million, according to public documents. The parcel sits across the street where the company is looking to bring a 100-story, 1,018-residence development that would be the tallest structure in the city.
The seller of the parcel is an entity associated with the Costacos family of Seattle. The parcel itself is one quarter of a city block, and it sits next to another quarter-block parcel that is owned by Plymouth Housing Group, and a half-block parcel that is owned by New York-based Brickman Real Estate.
Brickman’s property is the Central Building, an 8-story historic office property totaling 192,176 square feet for which the New York investor paid $67.5 million in July of 2018. Plymouth Housing Group sold the development rights for its property to Urban Visions in 2019 for just over $2 million. No project has been submitted to the city for the redevelopment of that site, which today is home to Pacific Hotel Apartments.
The Crescent Heights parcel, which the company purchased on December 15th, is a public garage presently, and the company is likely land banking the site for future development.
Across the street, the company owns a larger development site, the 4th & Columbia project, which is located at 701 4th Ave., and which Crescent Heights introduced to the city in 2015. The company is proposing to develop what it calls a vertical urban village that would be the tallest structure in Seattle, and it would sit across the street from the present tallest structure, the Columbia Center, which was developed by Martin Selig in 1985.
Crescent Heights purchased the 4th & Columbia site from a joint venture that included the Costacos family in 2015 for $48.75 million.
Crescent Heights is not a stranger to Seattle or large, impactful projects. The development company already has experience in receiving approval to redevelop a site located on the corner of Minor Avenue and Stewart Street at 1901 Minor Avenue. The Miami developer worked with Genlser to bring a 39-story, two-tower residential project with 900 rental residences through the design review process and received a Master Use Permit before selling the development to Concord Pacific, a Canadian residential developer, for $72 million in August of 2019.
