The changing face of South Lake Union

General Article

South Lake Union's facelift will create 12 acres for cultural, educational, recreational activities — near the center

South Lake Union as viewed from the Fred Hutchinson campus. In addition a boom in new construction, neighborhood change will include expanding and improving South Lake Union Park. Photo by Todd McNaught

So far, nothing has changed the face of South Lake Union more than the growth of Fred Hutchinson's 14-acre Day Campus. However, with the city of Seattle pushing to transform the area into a vibrant "neighborhood of opportunity," a wave of even greater development is on the horizon.

Mayor Greg Nickels has announced an ambitious agenda to revitalize the area. By building on the existing base of life sciences activity anchored by Fred Hutchinson, Nickels envisions transforming South Lake Union into an "economic engine" where people can live, work and play — all in the shadow of downtown.

First, however, the city must improve South Lake Union's infrastructure. With that in mind, Nickels has announced several large public works projects for the area. They include:

• Eliminating the "Mercer mess" at Interstate 5
• Building a streetcar line connecting South Lake Union with downtown
• Improving and expanding an existing waterfront park
• Constructing a new City Light substation

The price tag for all those improvements is $421 million with the money coming from a combination of city, state, federal, regional and private sources. The potential payoff, however, is impressive. According to a city study, a revitalized South Lake Union has the potential to create 76,000 new statewide jobs by 2025 and generate revenues to the city and state of $870 million over the next 20 years.

While all four public works projects will benefit Fred Hutchinson and its employees, the transportation projects will provide the greatest rewards, said Scott Rusch, vice president for facilities and operations. "We need better access to the mass transit systems for our employees," he said.

The streetcar along a 1.3-mile route between Westlake Station in downtown Seattle and Yale Avenue North at the south end of Lake Union, would do just that.

"The street car will be a big plus for center employees, providing easy access to downtown," said Annie Gugiu, external relations manager. "Commuters will have a direct link to the downtown bus tunnel, the monorail and future light rail service, and anyone wanting to shop or run errands on their lunch hour will have a quick and dependable ride to and from Westlake Mall."

Once a feasibility study is complete, the proposed design for the streetcar line will go to the city council for approval. If all goes well, the streetcar could be up and running by mid-2006. Property owners through a local improvement district would pay more than half of the $45 million price tag. The center would contribute approximately $1.7 million, Rusch said.

Compared to building a streetcar line, unraveling the Mercer mess is a more complex, expensive and long-range endeavor. The city currently is preparing a draft environmental-impact statement examining several alternatives. The alternative recommended by the South Lake Union Transportation Study calls for transforming Mercer Street into a two-way boulevard with three lanes in each direction and reducing Valley Street into a two-lane side street.

The estimated cost is between $75 million and $95 million; however, funding has yet to be secured. The earliest construction could start on the two-year project is 2007.

The South Lake Union Park plan calls for expanding and improving a more modestly developed patch of green space between Valley Street and Lake Union. The site will include a wharf, a fountain, picnic tables, a model boat pond, a shoreline walkway, a small-boat launch and enough open space to host concerts and other large gatherings.

"Many people don't realize that South Lake Union Park is about to get a facelift," Gugiu said. "It will become 12 acres devoted to cultural, educational and recreational activities — all just a short five-minute walk from the center."

The design is nearly finished with construction tentatively scheduled to begin next year and be completed 12-18 months later. The Parks Foundation is conducting a campaign to raise $13-$15 million in private funding to build the park.

The last of the four public works projects, a new City Light substation, will improve the reliability of the power supply to the center, Rusch said. Right now, City Light is shopping for a site. Depending on South Lake Union's growth, the substation will likely come on line between 2011-2018, produce anywhere from 50-150 megawatts and cost between $50-$200 million. Funding would come from City Light revenues.

Besides all of the public works projects on the drawing board, the mayor also is pursuing strategies to ensure affordable housing is part of a revitalized South Lake Union. A multi-family tax-exemption program, recently expanded to include South Lake Union, is one of those strategies. The program grants a 10-year tax break to multi-family developers who dedicate a portion of their units to households earning 60 to 80 percent of Seattle's median income or between $43,140 and $50,330.

The tax-exemption is a great news for the 4,000 employees and patients who come to the Fred Hutchinson campus - which includes the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance — every day, said Han Nachtrieb, vice president for human resources.

"Many of them spend considerable time here, use alternative transportation and would certainly prefer to live nearby," Nachtrieb said. "What the city council has done with the multi-family tax exemption gives the current and future South Lake Union workforce affordable housing, reduced congestion and quality of life."

For more information about the Seattle Streetcar, visit http://www.buildthestreetcar.org. To learn more about the mayor's plans for South Lake Union, visit http://www.cityofseattle.net/mayor.

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Vulcan spawns a wave of new private South Lake Union development projects

As the city of Seattle pursues several public works projects to help transform South Lake Union, private development already is taking root.

Leading the way is Vulcan Inc., the multi-focused business and charitable enterprise established by Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen. Vulcan, which owns more than 50 acres in South Lake Union, shares the city's vision of stimulating life sciences research activity there while blending housing, retail and office projects with open space and public transportation to create a dynamic urban neighborhood.

Together with various development partners, Vulcan has built or is in various stages of building nine projects in South Lake Union totaling 1.8 million square feet. However, that's just the tip of the iceberg. Vulcan ultimately could develop up to 10 million square feet in the neighborhood.

So far, two projects are complete and occupied. The SBRI Building, a five-story structure at Westlake Avenue and Thomas Street, is the home of the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute and of research laboratories for Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center. The 112,000 square foot building includes 9,500 square feet of retail space. A new cafe, Henry's, opened there in May. Meanwhile, the Interurban Exchange III Building houses Rosetta Inpharmatics, a wholly owned subsidiary of the pharmaceutical giant Merck. The four-story, 136,000-square-foot building is located at Terry Avenue and Republican Street and includes a new cafe called Rosalind's.

Opening this month are the Alcyone apartments. The 160-unit building, located at Minor Avenue and Thomas Street, provides moderate market rate housing aimed at workers earning $32,000-$60,000 a year.

Scheduled to open later this year are the 428 Westlake building at Westlake and Republican and the first building for the new UW Medicine Lake Union campus between Republican and Mercer and Eighth and Ninth avenues. The 428 Westlake building is a six-story, 88,000-square-foot office/biotech building with 6,000 square feet of retail space. Apparel maker Tommy Bahama will move its headquarters there. Other tenants have yet to be announced.

The UW Medicine Lake Union campus is the first phase of a three-phase project. By 2007, the four-story, 105,000 square-foot building will be joined by a 260,000-square-foot structure and a 300,000-square-foot structure with all three facilities housing University of Washington researchers focusing on major health issues such as AIDS, cancer and heart attacks.

The planned Interurban Exchange II building is located at Terry Avenue and Mercer Street. The four-story, 107,000-square-foot structure's construction start date will be determined in the near future. So will construction on Interurban Exchange IV and V. Linked by a skybridge, the two five-story buildings for Interurban Exchange IV and V will total 235,000 square feet, including a 14,000-square-foot conference and fitness facility plus a 24,000-square-foot public plaza. So far, no tenants have been announced.

Construction begins this summer on 2200 Westlake. Dubbed the "Gateway to South Lake Union," the 550,000-square-foot project will include a 130-room luxury boutique hotel, a 50,000-square-foot grocery store and 275 condominiums. Located between Denny and Westlake and Terry and Ninth, the building is scheduled for completion in spring 2006.

Work also begins this summer on the 223 Yale Building, another mixed-use project that will house 180 residential units and some retail space as well as serve as world headquarters for NBBJ architects. The completion date for the 362,000-square-foot project is late 2005 or early 2006.

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