University District property set to open in 2017
SEATTLE, July 14, 2015, Vulcan Real Estate today announced the groundbreaking of its latest project, located at 4041 Roosevelt Way Northeast in Seattle’s University District neighborhood. The seven-story Augusta Apartments will feature 208 market-rate rental units and 3,600 square feet of ground floor retail space.
Amenities will include a variety of shared indoor and outdoor spaces such as a roof deck and a courtyard, each with adjoining amenity rooms. Additional amenities with include a guest suite, a study area, a fitness center, a dog grooming room, and a sports court.
In the late 1960s the site was home to a start-up called Computer Center Corporation (CCC). It is there that Paul Allen and Bill Gates, who would later co-found Microsoft, seriously honed their programming skills and developed a platform for what they did later in their programming careers. The company offered the two high school students free use of its timesharing computers in exchange for help debugging their PDP-10 mainframe. Allen and Gates could be found there after school, late into the night and during the weekends. When the debugging work was complete the boys successfully convinced CCC to allow them continued free access to computers in exchange for programming work. Paul Allen’s personal connection to the site led to Vulcan’s purchase in 2001.
To pay homage to Paul Allen’s history with the site, the building is named after Augusta Ada Byron, Countess of Lovelace, a gifted British mathematician and writer from the mid 1800s who is widely regarded as the world’s first computer programmer. Commonly known as Ada Lovelace, she was a close friend of Charles Babbage, who created the first mechanical computer. Amongst her many notes is the first known documentation of an algorithm intended to be carried out by a machine. She is still relevant today, and every year in October, technology, math and science communities around the world celebrate her work and all the achievements women have made in math, science and technology.
“We are very excited to have the opportunity to add to the incredible vibrancy of the University District,” said Ada M. Healey, vice president of real estate for Vulcan Inc, “We are also looking forward to honoring Paul Allen’s connection to the 41st & Roosevelt site and finding ways to celebrate its history.”
Augusta is designed by Runberg Architecture Group and will be constructed by Exxel Pacific, Inc. The project is targeting LEED for Homes Gold level certification or better as well as Salmon-Safe accreditation.
Augusta will be within walking distance of the University of Washington campus, the Burke-Gilman Trail and the new University District light rail station which will open in 2021 at the corner of 43rd and Brooklyn.
About Vulcan Real Estate
Seattle-based Vulcan Real Estate directs all real estate investment activities for Vulcan Inc., a Paul G. Allen company. Through strategic acquisitions and innovative development, Vulcan Real Estate has created a diversified portfolio of high-performing quality assets including office, biotech, residential and mixed-use projects. The company’s integrated team of real estate professionals offers a full range of development and portfolio management services from site selection and urban planning to build-to-suit construction, leasing and asset repositioning. Its real estate model is based on quality, sustainable development that builds new value across the entire community. To date, Vulcan has delivered 5.7 million square feet in 26 new office, biotech, residential and mixed-use projects in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood. The company has 600,000 square feet of commercial space under construction for Amazon.com and the Allen Institute for Brain Science and several more projects in pre-development planning. The company is also in pre-development planning for three sites at Yesler terrace where it will build approximately 650 residential units. Vulcan Real Estate currently manages nearly $2 billion in real estate assets. For more information, visit www.vulcanrealestate.com.
