April 14, 1998

Luxury apartments coming to downtown Renton

By NOEL S. BRADY
Journal staff reporter

An expansive public/private redevelopment project got under way in Renton yesterday with the ground breaking of Dally Homes Inc.'s mixed-use apartment complex called The Renaissance.

With 110 luxury apartments and 6,000 square feet of retail space, The Renaissance will be the heart of Renton's new downtown, which will include a regional transit center and a two-phased central gathering place or piazza.

Developer sees mixed-use buildings in Kirkland and Bellevue as examples of the type of project he has planned for Renton.

Renaissance developer Don Dally, who formed Renaissance LLC to develop the mixed-use project, said it has the potential to kick off a major building boom in downtown Renton comparable to what has occurred in recent years in cities like Kirkland and Bellevue.

"If you look at Kirkland 10 years ago, it was a pretty dismal place," Dally said. "Now look what's happened to Kirkland in a very short period of time. Look at Bellevue. Renton seems to be the next logical area for that kind of development."

The city sparked its downtown redevelopment effort by purchasing five acres of city center property, which for years was occupied by auto dealers. After encouraging the dealers to move to the Automall along Grady Way adjacent Interstate 405, the city managed to free a sizeable chunk of land well suited for dense mixed-use development.

The $10 million Renaissance development will echo Renton's craftsmen heritage by incorporating slate and stucco exteriors with wood paneling interiors and a fireplace in the lobby. The building will feature upscale studio and one-bedroom apartments marketed to professionals. It will be situated around two courtyards, each featuring a spa and fountain.

The project will include about 154 parking spaces below the building. Two separate retail plaza areas on the building's ground floor will feature a cafe such as Starbucks or Tully's and several other retail tenants. Steve Thomas of the project's architect, Thomas Harkey Architects (formerly KTH Architects), said the building's raised plaza will provide views of the surrounding landscape and gathering areas.

"By having two plaza areas," Thomas said, "you're able to have more units associated with each area. The overall effect is going to be a blending of an old-world country style."

Dally said he remembers driving through Renton just a few years ago and thinking the small city looked like bombed-out portions of Beirut. That was shortly after The Boeing Co. pulled out its operations in Renton, leaving a commercial real estate vacancy rate of more than 50 percent in the town. Just five years later Renton has a vacancy rate of 5.6 percent.

In the last two years alone, a bevy of new companies, including Smurfit Recycling, Yale Materials Handling, K&N Meats and K&L Distributors has moved into the old Boeing buildings and built new commercial buildings throughout the city. The result has been an increase in the city's workforce. Dally said he wants to provide the housing they need.

"Renton used to be in the southwest of everything; now it's in the middle of everything," Dally said, "and when I say everything I mean jobs. We're trying to provide nice housing for people who work in Renton."

The city adopted the Downtown Renton Redevelopment Plan in 1993. The area is intersected by Logan and Morris avenues. Susan Carlson, Renton's economic development administrator, said the city set out to diversify its workforce after Boeing pulled out. The result is a slightly higher number of people working in Renton for a far wider range of businesses.

"We have done a very targeted approach for filling up those vacant Boeing buildings," Carlson said. "What we've tried to do is attract companies that aren't dependent on Boeing to create a more diverse work force. At this point we're not really dependent on Boeing at all."

By the end of 1999 a new transit center will be located across Logan Avenue from The Renaissance. In addition to the gateway project and the piazza, the city will invest $920,000 to improve Logan Avenue and add more parking and $400,000 for watermain upgrades. Public and private investment in this area will total more than $12 million by 1999.

Carlson said she envisions downtown Renton as an "urban environment in which people will be happy to live." Unlike Bellevue, the city is not suited for highrise office use, she said, but it should attract an increased development of three-to six-story multi-family residential buildings surrounded by new restaurants and hotels.

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