November 20, 2015

Bosa shows design for 420-unit apartment tower in Seattle

Courtesy ZGF Cotter Architects [enlarge]

Bosa Properties wants to start work next summer or fall on this 41-story apartment tower at 2014 Fairview Ave. The design shows rounded edges on the exterior.

Bosa Properties has waited eight years for the right moment to develop a piece of property it owns on Denny Way.

That moment is now. The Vancouver, B.C., firm earlier this year started planning a 41-story residential tower at 2014 Fairview Ave. and is set to show preliminary designs to a review board next month.

Daryl Simpson, senior vice president at Bosa Properties, said the building will have 420 apartments.

For much of its existence, the developer has focused on condo towers, but recently it has started doing apartments as well. Simpson said Bosa Properties is working on four apartment projects in Vancouver B.C.

Building apartments in Seattle “is not a departure for us,” he said. “It's an evolution.”

Simpson said Bosa would like to begin construction late next summer or early fall.

Design review documents show the tower will have 300 underground parking spaces and 10,000 square feet of retail.

An early design guidance meeting is set for 5:30 p.m. Dec. 1 at City Hall, 600 Fifth Ave.

ZGF Cotter Architects is designing the tower, and Hewitt is the landscape architect. Bosa will construct the building.

Bosa's preferred design is called “Alius,” which the documents say is Latin for another or different. The site has an irregular shape because it is where two street grids meet. The project team wants the building to address both street grids.

The design shows soft, rounded edges that Simpson said will be a contrast with the many sharp, rectangular high rises planned nearby.

Robert Bosa founded Bosa Properties. His family has a long history in the Vancouver area. Robert and his brother Nat — who is building the Insignia condo complex in Seattle — moved with their six brothers from Italy in the 1950s to British Columbia, according to news reports, and started building houses together as Bosa Brothers Construction.

In the early 1990s, Simpson said, the Bosas formed their own companies to create more opportunities for their children, who were starting to get into the real estate business. Robert Bosa's son, Colin, is now CEO of Bosa Properties.