August 18, 2014

Groundbreaking soon for 4th Avenue tower

Rendering courtesy of Weber Thompson [enlarge]

Path America is preparing to start the 41-story hotel and apartment tower it plans for 2116 Fourth Ave.

Company representatives said groundbreaking is Aug. 28. Site mobilization will begin in September, and crews will demolish a building on the site before starting construction.

The complex will have 342 apartments and a 142-room Hotel Indigo, which is an upscale brand of InterContinental Hotels Group. There will also be a restaurant, wine bar, rooftop deck and a garage with more than 200 stalls.

A press release said the $190 million project, called Potala Tower Seattle, is expected to open in the first quarter of 2017.

Lobsang Dargey is president of Path America, an Everett-based company that finances projects using the federal EB-5 program. The program enables people to obtain permanent green cards and a path to American citizenship if they invest at least $500,000 in qualifying real estate projects. The minimum is $1 million for projects that are outside of targeted high-unemployment areas.

Dargey, who is Tibetan, named the tower after Potala Palace in Tibet that was once the residence of the Dalai Lama. The groundbreaking event will have a traditional dance by the International Lion Dance Team. The development team, investors, hotel representatives, city and state officials will sign red tiles intended to bring good luck to the project.

Weber Thompson is the architect, interior designer and landscape architect. Turner Construction Co. is doing pre-construction work. Cary Kopczynski & Co. is structural engineer and KPFF Consulting Engineers is civil engineer.

Last year, a limited liability company managed by Dargey called Potala Tower Seattle bought the 0.3-acre site for $11.5 million from an entity related to HAL Real Estate Investments, which had applied to build a residential tower on the property.