SkyscraperCity Forum banner

Shoreline Development News/Pictures

31658 Views 140 Replies 28 Participants Last post by  nwctybldr
So I thought I would try to post pictures of Shoreline for the first time, starting with the only really significant project going on right now. This is the Malmo Apartments, slated to be open this summer. It's kitty corner to the future Aurora Square.



http://i.imgur.com/IAyiZfn.jpg

There isn't too much activity here in Shoreline right now, so I might do these updates once and a while. Thanks for looking!
See less See more
  • Like
Reactions: 1
21 - 40 of 141 Posts
Excited to say that the project mentioned in Ruffhauser's post above has created the advent of Shoreline's first yellow crane! (At least from my memory, I can't think of any other project that has had a big yellow crane like this)
  • Like
Reactions: 2
Alright hopefully I did this right, I'm pretty technologically inept. First photo is a townhouse project off of 185th at Densmore Ave N. Second is of the crane project that Ruffhauser linked in post #18 and the first phase (now leasing!) right behind it. Third is of the recently completed Malmo apartments off of Aurora behind the strip mall on 152nd. Besides various small SFH developments this is it for my neck of the woods right now.

20170206_124752 on Flickr
20170206_125459 on Flickr
20170206_130327 on Flickr
See less See more
3
  • Like
Reactions: 5
I'm liking how Shoreline is densifying. Suburban densification helps keep housing prices in check for Seattle as well.
  • Like
Reactions: 2
I'm liking how Shoreline is densifying. Suburban densification helps keep housing prices in check for Seattle as well.
But there's definitely a lot more room for potential! Keep an eye on our upzoning process for the 145th and 185th/North City station areas, it's gonna be an interesting time for policy in the coming 6 years!
See less See more
  • Like
Reactions: 1
https://www.theurbanist.org/2017/04...expands-property-tax-exemption-station-areas/

I think the close suburbs are in a unique position to take the housing shortage in their own hands, since the political stakes are certainly not as high for their local governments (I doubt most people could name the mayor of Shoreline's name off the top of their head, I certainly can't)
Looking at Shoreline, Lynnwood, Mountlake Terrace, Kenmore, and Bothell, their relatively aggressive approaches to housing are quite impressive and refreshing.
See less See more
  • Like
Reactions: 1
If only our suburbs could actually start building tall on terrible surface parking lots right now...
Meh, remember that Surrey has had rapid transit (Skytrain service) for almost a quarter of a century now. Once our light rail starts getting built out, you'll eventually start seeing stuff like this in the Puget Sound area.

As for Shoreline, I don't really see us building a 500+ foot tower here any time soon, but I do foresee lots of midrises down the line!
See less See more
A common theme with the Vancouver suburban high rises (that you can see in the photo) is close proximity to the Skytrain stations.

I'm not sure how big a fan I am of "transit station = high rise". Creates some awkward neighborhood layouts. The high rises tend to be at the very very tip top of the price range which creates a wide disparity in both housing type, and income levels.

Speaking from 100% from my arse, but for the most part I like the more gradual approach to densification that Seattle has taken where the neighborhood first gets filled in with mid-rises that are a little closer to the middle of the market, which also helps build up the retail area. After that's taken root, then replacing the older, close-in, mid-rise buildings with high rises. Feels like that would help build a better mix of housing types, and might also help grease the rails with some of the Nimby-ism. Tho, like I said. 100% from my ass. Maybe thats way too slow a process that will still see San Fran like prices and I'll be choking on those words when a 200sqft closet will run you $2000/mo. We also haven't really seen the second part of that equation anywhere either. We finally approved such things for the U-district, and we missed the opportunity with Captiol Hill.
See less See more
A common theme with the Vancouver suburban high rises (that you can see in the photo) is close proximity to the Skytrain stations.

I'm not sure how big a fan I am of "transit station = high rise". Creates some awkward neighborhood layouts. The high rises tend to be at the very very tip top of the price range which creates a wide disparity in both housing type, and income levels.

Speaking from 100% from my arse, but for the most part I like the more gradual approach to densification that Seattle has taken where the neighborhood first gets filled in with mid-rises that are a little closer to the middle of the market, which also helps build up the retail area. After that's taken root, then replacing the older, close-in, mid-rise buildings with high rises. Feels like that would help build a better mix of housing types, and might also help grease the rails with some of the Nimby-ism. Tho, like I said. 100% from my ass. Maybe thats way too slow a process that will still see San Fran like prices and I'll be choking on those words when a 200sqft closet will run you $2000/mo. We also haven't really seen the second part of that equation anywhere either. We finally approved such things for the U-district, and we missed the opportunity with Captiol Hill.
I agree with that sentiment. Having lived in Vancouver, the towers around stations model doesn't really work in a lot of places where the neighborhood before was just SFH or light commercial/light multifamily, for example Edmonds, Marine Gateway, or Holdom. The station towers concept does work, however, in large commercial destinations, a la Metrotown, Brentwood, and central Surrey. I'm pretty excited to see what happens when places like Alderwood, Factoria, the mall in South Everett, Burien, and Federal Way get Link access. I think the skytrain strategy could really work there!
See less See more
To me a mix of highrises and midrises around the region's future LINK stations would be far better than all highrises, or all midrises. Have some 5-7 midrises. But also have some 30+ story highrises. Plus add in some dense, narrow townhouses.
  • Like
Reactions: 1
Apparently the developer of Point Wells, BSRE, recently submitted a revised proposal for the development. Here's the Snohomish County document: http://snohomishcountywa.gov/DocumentCenter/Home/View/43167

The reason I'm posting it here and not the Snoco page is because this project effects Shoreline and Shoreline alone, although it happens to be north of the county line. The major change this revision makes is that they want to add a second access road up the hill through Woodway, and the development has additionally shifted to accommodate the changes coming with Richmond Beach Road (from the water to 185th RB road is going from two lanes in each direction at 35mph to one lane in each direction plus a center turn lane/median and protected bikelanes with widened sidewalks, long overdue IMO).

Honestly I think the second access road is a non-starter cuz they'll have to fight tooth and nail with some of the most stuck-up, sheltered NIMBY's on God's green Earth, so I'm just assuming this is only accessible via Shoreline. This means that Shoreline Fire and PD will have to service an additional 11k people (a fifth of the city's current population) in a hard-to-access location.

I personally would be fine with them building something if Snohomish County/Woodway let Shoreline or even King County annex this place. If not, even though it pains me to say this as a member of this forum, in it's current iteration I can't support this one getting built. What do you guys think? Would there be a win-win solution to the infrastructure problem that I'm not seeing? I'm going to the community meeting on the 22nd so any thought is appreciated
See less See more
Yeah I always thought that was an awkward site. Great location except for the lack of access.

Too bad they can't somehow build a road that parallels the railroad tracks to downtown Edmonds, though undoubtedly that would be fantastically expensive if they did.
Anyone know of images of this project? Katerra is pretty new so I'm interested to see what this looks like. Wolff Company did (still doing Phase 2) the CityLine apartments in Columbia City among other projects.

http://www.shorelineareanews.com/2017/09/north-city-post-office-will-close-in.html

The North City Post Office has been located at NE 175th and 15th NE for decades. However, it didn't own the land it sat on, but held a long-term lease, periodically renewed without issue.
See less See more
Anyone know of images of this project? Katerra is pretty new so I'm interested to see what this looks like. Wolff Company did (still doing Phase 2) the CityLine apartments in Columbia City among other projects.

http://www.shorelineareanews.com/2017/09/north-city-post-office-will-close-in.html
Katerra is, for all intents and purposes, the in-house contracting arm of Wolff. It's a separate company but Wolff is Katerra's primary backer and, as far as I know, Katerra is building all of Wolff's future projects.

They've been on a big hiring spree over the last ~2 years. Their architecture and interior design team is a mix of Miller Hull and Weber Thompson ex-pats. I don't think we're going to see any ground-breaking architecture on this one.
See less See more
  • Like
Reactions: 1
I have at least one friend at Katerra (brilliant structural engineer) but I didn't realize much of a connection to Wolff. From what little I've heard/seen Katerra is vertically integrated design and construction company like Tesla is doing for solar roofs to battery packs to car power.

Wolff is boring apartment buildings and some remodels from what I've seen but I haven't dug too hard.
See less See more
I have at least one friend at Katerra (brilliant structural engineer) but I didn't realize much of a connection to Wolff. From what little I've heard/seen Katerra is vertically integrated design and construction company like Tesla is doing for solar roofs to battery packs to car power.

Wolff is boring apartment buildings and some remodels from what I've seen but I haven't dug too hard.
I'm very interested in seeing if their model works. It, like most any other start-up these days, relies on scale. The possibilities are very exciting and I think it has a far better chance of reducing the cost to construct housing than modular construction does.

Wolff has had some interesting ones around town lately:
Pike Motorworks
4730 California
8th+Republican
Cityline
Venn at Main

They're known for being more willing to open their pocket books than many other developers (the interior finishes on the nice building at Pike Motorworks are insane for an apartment building) but otherwise build boring wood-frame buildings just like everyone else.
See less See more
Anyone know of images of this project? Katerra is pretty new so I'm interested to see what this looks like. Wolff Company did (still doing Phase 2) the CityLine apartments in Columbia City among other projects.

http://www.shorelineareanews.com/2017/09/north-city-post-office-will-close-in.html
Wow! This will be pretty huge for the neighborhood! This development will join the recently completed complex down the street on the other side of NE 175th, as well as a new multifamily project under construction just west of the Arabella apartments on NE 180th! North City is probably the densest part of Shoreline, so this is cool to see.
See less See more
Little update

I took this a week or two ago. It's the project just south of NE 175th St on Aurora (Same project as the second photo in post #22 of this thread). It's all topped out, just waiting on the cladding!

2017-12-07_09-50-26 on Flickr
See less See more
  • Like
Reactions: 3
The Sears in the shopping center at the corner of Aurora and 160th is closing in April. I wonder if that'll inspire them to do something interesting with that shopping center?
I actually used to work there at Central Market during high school and while I was there there was talk about redeveloping the Sears portion for a more urban and accessible SCC expansion. SCC is in one of the most inconvenient and inaccessible locations possible, and they are having some serious congestion problems so it seems plausible. One of the first posts I made on this thread had a render for a mixed-used redevelopment but it's 404d now. That whole complex has some serious redevelopment potential though!

Edit- after some searching I found this document Bond http://www.shorelinewa.gov/home/showdocument?id=14245
See less See more
  • Like
Reactions: 1
21 - 40 of 141 Posts
Top