Seattle – November 20, 2022 – Trammell Crow Company (TCC), a global commercial real estate developer, and partner Washington Capital Management, on behalf of their clients, have broken ground on a new life science development in Seattle. Rising 11 stories, 1916 Boren will include 282,700 square feet of life science space in the Denny Triangle neighborhood. Seattle Children’s Research Institute has pre-leased 124,000 square feet at the building, which will be used for pediatric research. Construction is slated to be completed by December of 2024, with the first tenant move-in scheduled for Q1 2025.

“1916 Boren is TCC’s second life science development in Denny Triangle, which is a neighborhood that has continued to evolve as a technology hub and a sought-after location for both business and Seattle residents,” said Alan Cantlin, Senior Vice President with TCC’s Seattle Office. “Seattle Children’s early commitment to the project reflects 1916 Boren’s market-leading life science infrastructure and design. The building will be well-suited to meet the specifications for the most demanding life-science buildouts. We’re looking forward to this project further developing the emerging life science cluster in Denny Triangle.”

1916 Boren will feature 14’ floor-to-floor height and 11’ windows, providing ample natural light and space to accommodate a range of life science buildouts. Amenities at the property include two dedicated freight elevators, chemical storage, outdoor patios on every floor, a cycling studio with locker rooms, a rooftop terrace, and a top-floor conference center with meeting rooms and collaboration spaces.

“We’re excited about the potential this space offers to meet the growing needs of our downtown workforce, as Seattle Children’s Research Institute continues our work to cure childhood disease and improve outcomes for children all over the world,” said Dr. Eric Tham, Senior Vice President and Chief Research Operations Officer at Seattle Children’s.

Shelley Gill and Adam Brenneman of Hazelbrook Advisors represented Seattle Children’s in its lease negotiations and Paul Carr of CBRE represented the landlord. Other project partners include CollinsWoerman acting as the project’s architect of record and Lease Crutcher Lewis serving as the general contractor.

1916 Boren is situated within Seattle’s largest concentration of residential communities, retail and culinary destinations. The location benefits from both a transit and Walkscore© of 100 and, situated at the intersection of Boren Avenue and Stewart Street, is just blocks away from Interstate-5, which is easily accessible by car. The development is adjacent to Boren Lofts, a TCC-developed life science building that was delivered in 2021 and includes 136,000 square feet of life science space.

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In a recent transaction, Seattle’s luxury residential tower Kiara traded hands for $322.7 million, or approximately $700,000 per unit, according to King County property records. The seller was Oxford Properties Group, which purchased the building in 2020 for $320 million, and the seller was an entity affiliated with Ponte Gadea Kiara LLC. Ponte Gadea is the real estate arm of a private high-net worth capital source based in Spain which is affiliated with the founder of global retailer Zara and has been investing heavily in markets across the U.S.

The deal was recorded on Dec. 13. CBRE’s Pacific Northwest multifamily team represented the buyer.

Located at 111 Terry Ave. N, the residential tower includes 461 residential apartments with a range of studios, one-, two- and three-bedroom units, according to the property’s website. Interior amenities include stainless steel appliances, gas ranges and quartz countertops as well as private patios and balconies. The tower’s community features are a rooftop terrace, clubroom with presentation kitchen, game room, fitness center, conference rooms and a dog lounge.

Kiara is located on the border of Seattle’s Denny Triangle and South Lake Union neighborhoods, which are just north of downtown Seattle and contain an abundance of restaurants, bars, entertainment and retail. Nearby attractions include Denny Park and the Seattle Center. The tower itself also houses 15,098 square feet of retail space, according to The Registry’s previous reporting. The building was constructed in 2018 and won ‘High Rise Residential Development of the Year’ at the 2019 NAIOP Night of the Stars program.

Ponte Gadea was founded by Amancio Ortega Gaona and has spent more than $1 billion in the Seattle area in the past three years. In 2019, the firm purchased both Arbor Blocks East and Arbor Blocks West – two Facebook-leased office buildings in South Lake Union – for a combined $415 million, according to previous reporting from The Registry. The seller of the properties was Vulcan Real Estate.

Also in 2019, Ponte Gadea paid $740 million, or nearly $912 per square foot, to acquire the 811,520 square foot Amazon-leased Troy Block office complex in South Lake Union.Troy Block is located at 300 Boren Avenue North.

Over the years, the company has also invested heavily in the San Francisco Bay Area and is no stranger to major acquisitions; in 2016, it purchased the well-known 360 Post Street Building, also known as the Tiffany Building for $135 million, or $1,365 per square foot. It also purchased Pacific Place in San Francisco for $475 million, or about $1,082 per square foot.

Oxford Properties is based in Canada with offices around the world and is owned by OMERS, a pension plan with $119.5 billion in net assets across a global portfolio of public market, infrastructure, private equity, venture capital and real estate investments, according to the firm’s website. Oxford manages $82 billion of assets across four continents and eight sectors, representing 165 million square feet of commercial space, 3,000 hotel rooms and 10,000 residential units as well as maintaining a multi-sector and multi-market development pipeline.

“Our portfolio is focused on premium properties in the best locations,” the firm’s website states. “The kind of places where people and companies want to be.”

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Members of the Seattle Downtown Design Review Board were pleased by a design proposed by Bosa Properties for a mixed-use residential building in Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood. The board shared thoughts and suggestions on the project during an Early Design Guidance Meeting on Tuesday and ultimately agreed to move it forward to the recommendation phase.

During the meeting, the project team shared a proposal for a mixed-use residential tower at 2700 1st Ave. Included in the project are retail spaces on the ground floor, amenity spaces above and both affordable and market-rate residential space above the podium level, according to the project plans. The 16-story tower would be 350,000 square feet with 16,300 square feet of retail space, approximately 246 apartment units, 228 below grade parking stalls and 222 bike stalls.

The owner is listed as Belltown on First Limited Partnership, an entity affiliated with Bosa Properties, which is a real estate development and asset management company based in Vancouver, according to public records. The architect is Perkins & Will out of the firm’s Seattle office, and the landscape architect is Hewitt, also in Seattle, according to project plans.

Erik Mott, principal and design director at Perkins & Will, gave the presentation to the early design review board on Tuesday.

“It’s a very walkable site,” he said and noted that Belltown features a number of intimately-scaled spaces within the community that adds to the character of the neighborhood. “We were looking for opportunities in the planning and design of the site to incorporate spaces like this of this kind of scale that are incidental and that help reinforce active street uses.”

Mott also highlighted the project’s location near the waterfront and other attractions such as the Olympic Sculpture Park, the Myrtle Edwards Park, Seattle Center, Public Brick Plaza, Cherry Street Coffee House and The Crocodile Music Venue, among others. The project plans also show that the site is just minutes away from The Space Needle.

“The neighborhood of course is very diverse in its uses and is quite vibrant and as noted is quite walkable,” Mott said. “This development is meant to be a kind of a microcosm of that mixed-use program and community.”

He also made specific note of the neighborhood’s camaraderie as well and spoke of wanting the proposed project to not only fit in with the community but add to it as well.

“There is a sense of community that is created through the programs and the places in the neighborhood,” Mott said. “It’s a goal of this project to be part of that fabric and to provide that kind of opportunity and inviting engagement with the public realm through the programming and design of, in particular the ground floor, but also the massing of the residential components of the project.”

Included in the proposal were three design options, with the applicant’s preferred option being the third. Part of that design involves the construction of a courtyard along 1st Avenue as well as more daylight for residents. That design also includes two departure requests to increase public space and reduce massing – the first is a greater than usual setback at the northwest corner and the second is an open space along 1st Avenue to support the courtyard and pedestrian experience.

Neither of the other two design options included departures, according to project plans. Option one included a residential entry on Cedar with continuous retail along 1st Avenue, while option two included a taller massing to create a “monumental identity” and a balanced access to daylight and views for residents.

Outreach to the public involved meetings with neighbors to the site and members of the community, according to the project plans. Feedback from respondents included many wanting to see new restaurants and/or bars in the retail portion of the project and suggestions that the building design incorporate Belltown history and style.

Public comments during the meeting included a question about why the building was placed to the north instead of being centrally located with landscape on either side and concerns about the shade impacts on neighboring properties. A number of comments also preferred a design option other than the applicant’s preferred alternative.

During their deliberation, however, board members favored the applicant’s preferred design alternative and also thought the departure requests were appropriate for the design.

“I think to me they’ve kind of nailed how they’ve gone about the massing responding to the neighborhood context,” said Jason Henderson, board member.

Katy Haima, board member, said she believes that the pedestrian experience either makes or breaks this design, and she would encourage the applicant to think about the landscaping along the different streets and what makes one area stand out from the other. However, she pointed out that the applicant’s preferred design did a nice job of not overloading the immediate area with a large building.

“I think I prefer the third [alternative] because it creates this very interesting and varied massing that sort of helps break down a building that is the length of the full block without it being too overwrought or adding on too many baubles to try and sort of negate that bulk in other ways,” Haima said.