Seattle Development News 8

[Capitol Hill]

I have a .pdf document on the City of Vancouver, BC planning documents on densification of the Oakridge Mall area. Oakridge is similar to Northgate in that it was a mid century suburban mall that the area developed around it. However, Vancouver is about 2 decades of Seattle in the work on their project. There was a lot of input of communities in the surrounding areas so that there would be fewer complaints as the project went forward. It seems as though there was a real determination to have positive change here. I hope that Seattle is able to have a similar outcome.

[alexjonlin]

Yeah I think the u district between the alley west of the ave and Roosevelt and between 42nd and 50th should be zoned for high rises, perhaps 500' next to the light rail station down to 200' at 50th. Creating a high rise district at Northgate should be a long term goal.

[SteveM]

Originally Posted by alexjonlin

Yeah I think the u district between the alley west of the ave and Roosevelt and between 42nd and 50th should be zoned for high rises, perhaps 500' next to the light rail station down to 200' at 50th. Creating a high rise district at Northgate should be a long term goal.

Hmm. I wonder if high-rises in the U-District would pencil out. My guess is that they wouldn't -- U-District rents are significantly lower than Belltown rents, and we're not seeing a lot of 200'+ action there, either -- but I could be wrong. We've seen a fair amount of 5+1 in the U-District over the last decade, so there's probably demand. And it would certainly be good for U-District retail if high-rises could help diversify the neighborhood beyond students.

Of course, high-rise zoning doesn't imply only high-rises could be built. Even if the U-District got only more 5+1 breadboxes, that could still be a good thing, at least if the ground floors are well done.

[mhays]

I think upper-middle-income highrises would pencil out just fine. If better quality housing existed, a lot of professors, doctors, etc., would probably pay top dollar to live within walking distance. Current rents are low because of the sorts of units that exist.

[Capitol Hill]

One thing that has kept rental properties in the 'lesser quality housing' category has been the Federal mortgage deduction. Compare condominiums vs. apartments sometime in Vancouver if you have the ability. Not much of a difference in finishes or quality. Do the same in Seattle, and its decidedly different. Maybe not for a handful of new build high rise apartments (Aspira, Olivian) but generally speaking, you notice the difference.

[CrazyAboutCities]

I don't think we have thread that focus on Northwest Amtrak here... I will post this article from Seattle Times anyway.

Amtrak ridership up from Seattle to Portland, Seattle to Vancouver, B.C.

Amtrak ridership soars, showing the highest totals since 1994

By Seattle Times staff

Related

Amtrak Cascades, which operates trains from Seattle to Portland and Seattle to Vancouver, B.C. has shown double-digit ridership growth and has broken records each month this year, according to the state Department of Transportation.

Ridership for April, May, and June showed the highest second quarter totals since 1994, with 214,641 passengers. Compared to the second quarter of 2009, this is an increase of nearly 12 percent, or more than 25,000 new passengers.

The first quarter of 2010 also had record ridership with an increase of nearly 34,000 riders since 2009.

Total ridership on Amtrak Cascades is 398,414 through June 30, or nearly an 18 percent increase over 2009.

Some of the increase was due to the Olympic Games in Vancouver, said the state.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...amtrak22m.html

[jessejb]

Fantastic! I can believe it. Too bad its become prohibitively expensive this summer, though. Passed on a trip to Portland because of it.

[CrazyAboutCities]

I used Amtrak last month to Portland, OR, it was almost full at both trips. I was impressed with that.

[Bond James Bond]

Crazy, seriously, you do not need to have fonts that big. It looks a bit annoying. Size 4 is about right if you want good-sized fonts. Anything more than that and it looks like you're screaming.

[CrazyAboutCities]

Sorry. Many people here posted the articles with big fonts. I thought it was required to do that. Ahead of this time, I will put the size 4 on the fonts.

[NW Mike]

Great Article Crazy!
Ridership has been way up. I love it... Its great to be back on here after a while away. Time to do some catch up on the forum reading.

[PDXPaul]

Let's keep investing in that line. Our region is just going to get more and more populous.

[Ginkgo]

The old Pier 48 warehouse to the south of the Colman Ferry Dock is being demolished. Many of you are too young to remember that this dock served a venerable old boat, the Princess Marguerite, which sailed between Seattle and Victoria. (On some of the pix, the faded letters Princess M are still visible). The building was also used in recent years for book fairs and my parents sailed from it several years ago when slower liners made the trip from Seattle to Alaska a rarity indeed (thanks to the Jones Act). Every once in a while a ship would be able to make it to Alaska and back, with the obligatory stop in Canada, all within the necessary time frame. The shed is coming down as part of the viaduct rebuild, but I don't know if the actual pier will be saved and just the building razed. From WSDOT.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wsdot/s...7624604939502/

[alexjonlin]

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...8_tower30.html Touchstone is snapping up "blocks" of property around Stewart and Boren for "office, technology, and hotel projects." Awesome! With 1200 Stewart (does that project have an actual name yet?) and this project, by the time the economy gets better, we'll all of a sudden have a lot more skyscrapers go up there! But I really wish they'd raise the height limit, there's no reason to limit it to 340(!) non-residential and 400 residential. At least 500 or 600 wouldn't be unreasonable.

[CityView Jim]

Originally Posted by Ginkgo

The old Pier 48 warehouse to the south of the Colman Ferry Dock is being demolished. Many of you are too young to remember that this dock served a venerable old boat, the Princess Marguerite, which sailed between Seattle and Victoria. (On some of the pix, the faded letters Princess M are still visible). The building was also used in recent years for book fairs and my parents sailed from it several years ago when slower liners made the trip from Seattle to Alaska a rarity indeed (thanks to the Jones Act). Every once in a while a ship would be able to make it to Alaska and back, with the obligatory stop in Canada, all within the necessary time frame. The shed is coming down as part of the viaduct rebuild, but I don't know if the actual pier will be saved and just the building razed. From WSDOT.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wsdot/s...7624604939502/

From what I've read, the building is being razed to make room for staging/storage of equipment for the viaduct but nothing more at this point.

[meku]

Originally Posted by alexjonlin

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/htm...8_tower30.html Touchstone is snapping up "blocks" of property around Stewart and Boren for "office, technology, and hotel projects." Awesome! With 1200 Stewart (does that project have an actual name yet?) and this project, by the time the economy gets better, we'll all of a sudden have a lot more skyscrapers go up there! But I really wish they'd raise the height limit, there's no reason to limit it to 340(!) non-residential and 400 residential. At least 500 or 600 wouldn't be unreasonable.

The 1200 Stewart will materialize a lot sooner than any of the Touchestone's plans. Hopefuly Touchestone will one day include some residential buildings as well.

[mhays]

What makes you say that? The public info isn't relevant.

[meku]

A hunch.

[alexjonlin]

Yeah it seems like it's moving pretty quickly, I'm guessing it'll be one of the first to be built once the recession is over, or maybe even just when the recession is just starting to end. There's going to be a period of time when the recession is over so office and residential will be getting scarce but there won't be any projects finished for a couple years after that. If someone starts their project before the recession is over and opens during that time, then they're in business. But it's good that Touchstone is assembling the property starting now, so that sometime in the future they can build one awesome mega-development.

[flotown]

I understand that Deutsche Bank is backing the 1200 Stewart project. After the Escala debacle, it is hard to understand how Lexas is getting them in another project