April 11, 2018

Campus Station: Several owners offer to sell big site in U District

Rendering by Colliers [enlarge]

Residential towers up to 240 feet are allowed. Colliers prepared this hypothetical rendering of what might be built on the site near the future rail station.

Colliers announced that it is selling a nearly one-acre site in the University District on a block immediately south of the future U District Station, where light rail service will begin in 2021.

Dubbed “Campus Station,” the assemblage comprises eight parcels from 4202 through 4238 12th Ave. N.E. There are multiple owners.

The combined property begins at the northeast corner of 12th and Northeast 42nd Street, and reaches north below the corner of Northeast 43rd Street. (That corner parking lot, presently being used for construction staging by Sound Transit, is not part of the Colliers offering.)

The Campus Station site was upzoned last year, allowing residential towers up to 240 feet. No parking is required, though it could be accessed from the alley to the east.

The property now has eight rooming houses and two low-rise apartment buildings. Several dozen units of housing would disappear with those structures.

Colliers estimates that as many as 549 market-rate apartments or 1,100 student beds could be built on the Campus Station site. Colliers has prepared a hypothetical two-tower rendering of what might be constructed. A combination of offices, hotel rooms and housing is also possible on the 41,200-square-foot site.

Colliers' Tim McKay, Dan Chhan and Sam Wayne are marketing Campus Station.

McKay said in a statement, “Development opportunities of the magnitude of Campus Station rarely come to market. The upside potential of the property is significant given its proximity to UW's campus, the opening of the University District light rail station, and the continuing population explosion and growth of the Puget Sound regional economy. Demand for well located residential and office continues to outpace supply.”

Campus Station isn't the only big U District property bound for redevelopment. University District Parking Associates has about two acres in three parking lots that it's offering for long-term ground leasing; CBRE is marketing that property.

Almost a half-dozen other high rises are being planned near U District Station, and some could reach 320 feet.

Meanwhile, University Way Northeast itself — aka The Ave — awaits a separate upzone this fall. A 75-foot height limit will be considered by Seattle City Council.

Other desirable parcels are sure to be in play. The one-acre Safeway site at Brooklyn Avenue Northeast and Northeast 50th Street was developed in 1950. Safeway's parent company, Albertsons, has been unloading stores in non-core areas, but it is redeveloping its location on top of Queen Anne Hill with a new store and about 250 units.

Tank removal and soil remediation are planned for the corner property at 4557 Brooklyn, a former Union 76 gas station. Permit Consultants NW, Frank W. Pita Consulting, KPFF and Cardno are working on that site, though no broker has publicly listed it yet. It's owned by the Erickson family, which operates the nearby University Seafood & Poultry Co. in a building that it also owns.

A 24-story residential tower called The M is planned for the former Chevron gas station site at 4700 Brooklyn.