Tag Archives: microhousing

State changes set to open up ‘congregate residences’ in Seattle

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New legislation under consideration by the Seattle City Council this week could create more co-living and congregate-style housing in the city.

With changes in state law, legislation coming in front of the council’s land use committee this week would update the city’s regulations to remove decade-old state restrictions placed on congregate housing that were hoped to stem the tide of microhousing.

The city says the restrictions worked and the production of new congregate housing dropped in Seattle. Changes in state law to open up zoning to new co-llving developments are now sparking an update that will allow the housing type in more areas of the city including all multifamily and even lowrise areas of the city.

Under the regulations, congregate residence means “a use in which sleeping rooms are independently rented and lockable and provide living and sleeping space, and residents share kitchen facilities and other common elements with other residents in a building.” Continue reading →

A decade later, checking in on what comes next for a Capitol Hill development once at the center of the Seattle debate over microhousing

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Thanks for the questions in the CHS Facebook Group about the changes at the property

An East Capitol Hill apartment development that became a centerpoint in Seattle’s early debates over microhousing has had an interesting decade and what comes next might say a little about the tiny apartment units and the industry that created them.

Neighbors around 17th Ave E and E Olive St. began asking questions about the twin apartment buildings last month as plywood went up and the property was fenced off.

A decade ago, neighbors and anti-growth advocates cited the 1720 E Olive St. congregate housing project as an example that the city wasn’t doing enough to limit microhousing — especially near areas of single family-style housing and complained that the buildings were poorly made and that the tiny living spaces would become undesirable to residents.

The 60 units across the two buildings at 17th and Olive average 138 square feet apiece, according to King County records. Continue reading →

Calhoun Properties, mother of the aPodment, puts its Seattle portfolio up for sale including Capitol Hill, First Hill, and Central District buildings

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A Calhoun aPodment loft (Image: aPodment)

Calhoun Properties has reshaped many blocks of Capitol Hill and the Central District.

Now the Seattle developer that made aPodment a Kleenex-level brand has put its entire microhousing portfolio including at least nine holdings across Capitol Hill, First Hill, and the Central District on the market.

The Seattle Times reported here on the planned sale of 23 buildings and their 1,402 apartments including ten buildings enjoying soon to expire affordable housing tax breaks. “The buyer could seek to extend some of them, saving around $3.3 million over a decade, according to the marketing brochure, or allow them to expire and raise the rents in those apartments,” the Times reports. Continue reading →

Surrounded by taller buildings with room for more people on all sides, two 1906-built houses set to finally make way for development on Bellevue Ave E

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A rendering shows how the building will fit in on Bellevue Ave E

Already surrounded by buildings ranging from three to eleven stories, the last remaining single family-style homes on a stretch of Capitol Hill’s Bellevue Ave E just off E Olive Way will meet with demolition crews if a project coming before the East Design Review Board is approved. But questions remain about whether or not a small stand of trees will meet the same fate.

The project involves properties and two 1906-built homes that have been lined up for redevelopment for most of the past of decade as new buildings sprung up in the nearby area and filled the neighborhood in.

The around 170-unit project comes amid ongoing demand for new housing in the city despite the COVID-19 crisis and economic fallout.

The plan is for two adjacent parcels at 123 and 127 Bellevue Ave E, roughly where E John hits Bellevue and stops – about a block north of Denny. Each of the two sites is currently occupied by a building constructed in 1906.

One is still a single-family home. The other started that way and has been renovated and expanded to become a 13-unit apartment building with a small parking lot. The proposed building is surrounded on all sides by apartment buildings, ranging from three to 11 stories. Continue reading →

Central District microhousing development targeted by Sawant ready for next phase in design review

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(Image: GGLO Design)

A four-story microhousing development planned to replace a former Section 8 subsidized apartment building on 19th Ave in the Central District will move into the second and final phase of the city’s design review process with a virtual meeting Thursday.

The Cadence Real Estate project was the center of controversy when District 3 representative Kshama Sawant took on the developer over its treatment of tenants living in the The Chateau Apartments under the federal affordable housing program. Sawant claimed victory in the matter saying the movement had forced Cadence to meet with residents and make several concessions including allowing the Section 8 tenants to remain in their units in coming years until the building is eventually demolished and an “unheard of concession” — $5,000 from Cadence to every household living in the building on top of legally required relocation assistance. Continue reading →

Microhousing still has a home on the Hill on Harvard Ave

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A trio of single-family style homes that have somehow survived in the heart of Capitol Hill at the corner of Harvard and Denny for some 116 years will make way for a planned seven-story building with 80 or so new apartment units. But first the 102 Harvard project must pass through design review. The process begins Wednesday night.

https://www.capitolhillseattle.com/event/design-review-102-harvard-ave-e/

Continue reading →

Design review: ‘Upscale’ microhousing must play nice with neighbors on Harvard Ave E

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Neighbor issues on Harvard Ave E

A project to replace what just might the simplest, saddest little two-unit apartment building on Capitol Hill with an eight-story, 71-unit development will take what should be its final bow in front of the East Design Review Board Wednesday night.

http://www.capitolhillseattle.com/event/design-review-225-harvard-ave-e-2/?instance_id=7457743

Designed by Cone Architecture and developed by Highpoint Investments, the project in the 200 block of Harvard Ave E between E Olive Way and Thomas will rise an extra story with its plans for 66 “small efficiency dwelling units” and a set of five standard “efficiency units.” Continue reading →

Design review: Pratt Fine Arts Center development in the CD, ‘upscale’ small efficiency project on Capitol Hill

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A development set to create market-rate housing and reshape a key block of Central District arts and culture and a project that proves Capitol Hill microhousing is not dead will both take their debut bows in front of the East Design Review Board Wednesday night.

1900 S Jackson
The plan announced in spring to create a full-block expansion of the Pratt Fine Arts Center in conjunction with a six-story, 160-unit mixed-use will move forward Wednesday night as developer Daniels Real Estate brings its proposal up for early design guidance.

CHS reported in April on the Pratt project as the Central District cultural center that serves more than 4,000 art students a year marked its 40th anniversary by announcing the venture with Daniels Real Estate. The art center today has 19,000 square feet of studio space in its two existing buildings, which will remain open during the expansion. The expansion will grow the campus by adding 75% of the block between S Jackson and S Main and 19th and 20th Aves. Underground parking will have space for 100 cars. Continue reading →

Why they’re building a hotel and apartment building on Harvard Ave

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screen-shot-2016-11-07-at-4-13-49-pmAdding some hotel space and apartments to Capitol Hill was an easy decision for Jon Coulter and his business partners Rod McClaskey and Terry Boyle.

In spite of the common perception of soaring rents and developers making money hand over fist, Coulter says they are running up against some softness in the market, at least in the higher-end range where they build.

“The pressure of the rents is downward,” Coulter said. “We’re testing the top of the food chain.”

http://www.capitolhillseattle.com/event/design-review-1818-harvard-ave/

And he’s expecting that downward pressure to keep up, with hundreds, if not thousands of new units coming online over the next few years.

“We’re not sure what 380 square feet will get us in Capitol Hill in three years when it’s done,” Coulter said. Continue reading →

Design review: What Vulcan’s first Broadway project will look like, plus small efficiency dwelling units on 10th Ave E

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Vulcan's Block 3 plan for Broadway at Yesler might finally justify the First Hill Streetcar

Vulcan’s Block 3 plan for Broadway at Yesler might finally justify the First Hill Streetcar

While Wednesday night’s review sessions will include one half of real estate giant Vulcan’s development plans for both sides of Broadway at Yesler and a review of a Central District project the review board was worried about being shoehorned into a residential area, the bigger design review decisions of the week won’t happen at a public meeting. More on Vulcan’s 120 Broadway development and a rowhouse project from Isola Homes at 18th and Spruce, below. But first, let’s stop by the squabble on 10th Ave E just past the curve from Broadway where neighbors aren’t happy about a planned five-story, “small efficiency dwelling unit” apartment building being lined up to rise above the lot currently home to a 1930s-built single family house.

screen-shot-2016-09-27-at-3-00-43-pmMcKee 10th
Though it will create a five-story building with 18 small units and one regular old “apartment”-style unit, the McKee 10th microhousing development being planned for 714 10th Ave E isn’t large enough to trigger a full design review. Instead, its “streamlined” review process wraps Friday without the full package of 90-minute meetings and a lineup of public comment by neighbors objecting to the bulk and scale of the project. But you can still have your say — here are some of the comments from letters sent to the city about the project: Continue reading →