High-Rise Apartments Break Ground in Seattle

By Dees Stribling, Contributing Editor

Seattle—GID Development Group has broken ground on a 41-story residential tower at 2030 8th Avenue in downtown Seattle. The property, which is across the street from Amazon’s new major office expansion, will include 355 units.

The high rise will feature a mix of studios and one-, two- and three-bedroom rental units, as well as 4,200 square feet of retail and 242 parking spaces, with occupancy slated for mid-2015. According to the developer, the market will be younger professional singles and couples, with various indoor and outdoor amenities that are health- and fitness-oriented.

Designed by Seattle-based architecture firm Weber Thompson and constructed by Sellen Construction Co., the building is designed to achieve a LEED Silver rating. The property will also be TOD in the sense that it’s located along the Seattle Streetcar line, which connects to downtown Seattle and South Lake Union.

Demand is currently very strong for Seattle apartments. According to research specialist Dupre + Scott Apartment Advisors, Puget Sound’s market vacancy rate is 3.8 percent, which is the lowest the rate has been since 2007. The market has been that tight only three other times in the past 30 years, the company notes. As a result of lower vacancies, rents have risen 5.5 percent in the past 12 months, and even excluding the new units that opened in the past year, rents still posted a 3.7 percent increase.

Boston-based GID has acquired or developed more than 54,000 residential units and in excess of 13 million square feet of commercial space, but this is its first development in Seattle. Currently the company has more than 12 million square feet of mixed-use projects under way, including about 5,000 multifamily units in markets nationwide.