August 19, 2015

Antioch site proposal now shows two 42-story towers with housing, hotel

Images courtesy of VIA Architecture [enlarge]

The proposal for developing Antioch University's property at 2326 Sixth Ave. in the Denny Triangle just got a lot bigger.

Documents submitted for last night's design review meeting said “the project” acquired property at the northeast corner of Sixth Avenue and Bell Street, which will allow a new development to fill the half-block site.

Adding the corner lot means the proposal has gone from one tower to two. The latest plan calls for two 42-story towers with 830 apartments, 198 extended-stay hotel rooms, 12,000 square feet of ground floor retail and 600 parking spaces.

Antioch put the site up for sale earlier this year, and it is pursuing entitlements to shorten the time it will take for a developer to break ground.

HB Management of Seattle is listed on project documents.

Matt Cookson, chief communications officer for Antioch, said the school has found a buyer for the site, but he would not give the name. Cookson said HB Management is not the buyer but is the developer for Antioch.

It is unclear if HB Management would remain on the team after the property is sold, and the firm did not return requests for comment. VIA Architecture and Communita Atelier are also listed on documents.

Original plans called for a 40-story tower with 332 housing units, 288 hotel suites, street-level retail and 525 parking spaces on seven levels, four of them below ground.

Whoever buys the site will share the block with another huge project. Just across the alley on the east, Clise Properties is planning two 40-story towers with 686 housing units.

Design review documents show that the team working on the Antioch site is asking the city for an exception to the rule that requires a 60-foot separation between towers on the same block. The proposal calls for setting the towers 30 feet back from the center of the alley, and asks that Clise do the same to create the 60-foot gap.

In exchange for this exception, the Antioch project would improve the corners of Battery and Bell streets along Sixth Avenue by adding open space, landscaping, and wider sidewalks. This would extend the park that now runs along four blocks of Bell Street.

Ohio-based Antioch has offered academic programs in Seattle since 1975. The university acquired its current two-story home in Seattle in 1996 for $3.8 million, according to public records.