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October 19, 2017

Holland to buy 3 sites for tower on Boren

  • The tower will include offices for the Recovery Cafe, and may house educational space for Cornish College.
  • By BENJAMIN MINNICK
    Journal Construction Editor

    Holland Partner Group is buying three adjacent parking lots at the corner of Boren Avenue and Lenora Street to build a mixed-use tower that could be 440 feet tall.

    Each lot is owned by a different entity: Cornish College of the Arts, Bellwether Housing and Recovery Cafe. Together they have about 90 parking stalls.

    Thomas Parsons, Holland's executive managing director, said the firm is just starting to get entitlements for the unnamed project.

    A news release from Cornish said the project “will breathe new life into an underdeveloped corner of Seattle's fastest growing neighborhood.”

    There will be a four-story podium below the market-rate apartment tower.

    Parsons said the number of floors and the unit count have not been decided, but Holland will maximize the zoning, which allows buildings up to 440 feet.

    Apartments would likely range from smaller studios to three-bedrooms. Parking would be provided below grade for about 350-400 cars.

    The Cornish release said the tower will include office space for Recovery Cafe, which operates a social services program across the street, and may house educational space for the college.

    The project team includes architect Weber Thompson and Holland Construction, an affiliate of Holland Partner Group.

    Parsons said Holland hopes to start construction within 18 months. The news release said the project is tentatively scheduled for completion in January 2021.

    Cornish could take space in the podium — on part of the ground floor and possibly three floors above. Recovery Cafe could take 2,500-5,000 square feet.

    Each podium floor could be up to 18,000 square feet.

    Parsons said the podium space would be efficient for academic uses, but Cornish hasn't made a formal commitment.

    “It's real important that they be able to expand and develop the campus they need to expand their curriculum,” Parsons said.

    Chris Kevorkian, interim president at Cornish, said the school is looking at its campus-wide space needs as the future of education changes.

    Cornish offers four visual arts and four performing arts majors, and has added interior architecture and film majors in recent years.

    Kevorkian said the goal is to finish the needs assessment in May or June of next year, and perhaps make a decision about space in Holland's tower at that time. He said the school is looking at how existing space is used and what each department expects it will need.

    Parsons said sales of the three parking lots are expected to close next summer.

    Kevorkian said the proceeds will help Cornish fulfill its mission of “cultivating the next generation of artist-citizen-innovators.”

    “We're really excited about the opportunity and potential it represents,” he said about the property sale.

    The news release said Bellwether Housing will use proceeds from its sale to help develop hundreds of affordable rental homes in other sites near job centers, transit and schools.


     


    Benjamin Minnick can be reached by email or by phone at (206) 622-8272.



    
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