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August 30, 2016

Architect says HALA changed 403 Dexter plan

By BRIAN MILLER
Journal staff reporter

The DJC recently reported that Wilshire Capital Partners' proposal for a project at 403 Dexter Ave. N. had gone from seven stories up to 25 stories and then back down to eight.

Initial efforts to reach the developer and architect to find out why were unsuccessful, but later VIA Architecture's Brian O'Reilly shed some light on the subject.

O'Reilly said when the team started design review last year the city was considering changing the lot coverage rules from 50 percent to 75 percent. That was the reason for the increase from seven to 25 stories.

But that 75 percent option was “taken off the table,” O'Reilly said, due to the Housing Affordability & Livability Agenda (HALA), which included a number of new recommendations — some not yet made into law — with the goal of increasing the supply of affordable housing in the city.

The so-called “Grand Bargain” between developers and the city resulted in the City Council passing the Mandatory Housing Affordability linkage-fee for commercial projects (last year) and residential projects (this month).

But actual upzoning changes aren't expected until 2017.

For now, said O'Reilly, the goal is to get a master use permit for 403 Dexter late this year or early next year, and then begin construction.

The plan now is to have 91 apartments, about 50 parking spaces below grade and 3,000 square feet of commercial space. Wilshire purchased the 12,000-square-foot property, formerly the Wright Exhibition Space, in 2014 for $4.1 million.

There is a smaller, 4,690-square-foot site to the south at 401 Dexter Ave. N. that Kilroy purchased for $1.8 million last year. O'Reilly said the two projects would proceed separately.

“We are aware of each other, and we talk to each other,” he said. “That site is gonna be limited” by the same 50 percent lot-coverage standard left unchanged by HALA. It's important to remember, however, that city zoning sets different lot-coverage standards in various sectors of the city.

Also in South Lake Union, O'Reilly said VIA is working with Wilshire on a seven-story, mixed-use apartment building at 525 Boren Ave. N., expected to finish in mid to late 2017. And a 26-story, mixed-use apartments at 427 Ninth Ave. N. should break ground next year. Wilshire sold that project in May to Hong Kong's Create World America for $16.25 million.


 


Brian Miller can be reached by email at brian.miller@djc.com or by phone at (206) 219-6517.




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