A promotion picture for the new Midtown Square apartment units. Of the more than 400 units available, 138 are income restricted (Image: Midtown Square)
(Image: All The Best Pet Care)
What goes into developing a for-profit, mixed-use apartment complex in the core of Seattle and a neighborhood with communities striving to address crises around displacement and gentrification? CHS reported details today of Midtown Square’s unique anchor tenant — Arté Noir arts center — at the center of the project.
But the development will also fill simpler needs in the area. The latest new business joining the project will make residents lined up for the pet-friendly apartment units and surrounding neighbors with furry friends happy. Construction permits have been filed for a new All The Best Pet Care to join the 23rd Ave side of the project. The chain has 15 other locations around the city including one on E Madison.
The new shop will join Arté Noir and a mix of neighborhood and BIPOC-owned businesses including a second location of the Jerk Shack Caribbean restaurant on the edge of the development’s internal plaza, So Beautiful Salon from Shavonne Bland, a Central District resident and Garfield High grad, along 23rd Ave, a new home for Raised Doughnuts on 24th Ave, and a new home for neighborhood bar The Neighbor Lady.
Meanwhile, leasing has begun on Midtown Square’s 428 market-rate and affordable apartment units, surrounding a quasi-public central plaza, and above a huge underground parking garage.
Redevelopment of 23rd and Union has taken years and has been a flashpoint in debates over the future of the neighborhood. In 2017, development on the block went through preliminary design review under a developer previous to current owner Lake Union Partners. A previous deal for the block got off to a rough start as the design review board rejected the first design plan for the Midtown Center block for a project from national developers Lennar Multifamily Communities and Regency Centers.
The rejection was soon a moot point when the deal for the big developers to purchase the property fell off the table. In 2017, Lake Union Partners stepped in with $23.25M to pull together a project on the core block of the Central District. As part of the Midtown deal, Lake Union agreed to sell 20% of the block to Forterra, transferring the property into Africatown’s Community Land Trust for development of a 100% affordable project on the south end of the Midtown block.
Africatown Plaza, with plans for 130 affordable units, is planned to break ground in coming months.
Now set to open for new residents, Midtown Square is also providing a portion of its units to lower income renters.
Under the city’s Mandatory Housing Affordability program and the Multi-Family Tax Exemption Program, the development is including around 30% — 138 units — affordable housing for households earning between $40,000 and $65,000 per year or 60% to 85% of area-median income.
Counted with the plans for Africatown Plaza, Lake Union says that puts the redeveloped block at 50% affordable.
At Midtown Square, prices on the market-rate studio, one, and two bedroom units range from around $2,600 a month for the external-facing one bedroom units to around $2,100 for the smaller studios facing the internal plaza.
A 536-square-foot studio part of the MFTE allocation is available to qualified tenants at $1,286 a month.
The pitch for the units includes the pedestrian but important elements like “stainless-steel kitchen appliances; tile backsplashes and stone countertops; light or dark kitchen color schemes; plentiful closets and built-in storage; pet-friendly policies; under-cabinet kitchen lighting and/or pendant lights; terraces and balconies in select units.”
Some will see the new apartment listings as sure indicators of gentrification but at least those new stone countertops and tile backsplashes will be joined by 138 new affordable homes in the Central District. Neighborhood dogs and cats will apparently be happier, too.
You can learn more at midtownsquare.com.
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Affordable. So that’s what you kids are calling it these days. This is just expanding the market to milk every last dime while complying with law (saving that vent for another time). Still steep. Too many who qualify are in unstable labor environments. Will the corp extend it’s “compassion” through adversity? Feels like a trap.
there is an affordable housing program at Midtown; the rents quoted here are the market rate rents not the affordable ones
That’s not a bad sized studio. It’s more like a one bedroom.
It is awesome that the Midtown Center has an internal plaza – a spot away from the hustle of the main arterial around it. I just wish the plaza would have a playground, some ping pong tables or a big fountain for kids to play in the summer. The weird little fountain on 24th/Union seems to be out of order already and sits in an awkward spot. A missed opportunity I would say for the community…anyhow, better than what we had before. Maybe Africatown adds something playful and active.
that weird little fountain is an artpiece created by James Washington Jr for the former Midtown Center – I believe there is a dedication ceremony this month for its re-installation at this site. It might not be activated until after this – though I agree the siting could be better
@Eli That “weird little fountain” is the Dr. James G. Washington Jr. Fountain of Triumph which originally on the property, then restored and returned to the property. You should read about Dr. Washington. He was an impressive person.
What about Ms Helen who does the delicious Soul Food ? Will she have a new cafe in the new complex ?