February 4, 2019

600-foot Vulcan tower would be tallest building in Bellevue

Renderings by NBBJ [enlarge]

The tower will also be Bellevue’s largest structure, at nearly 1 million square feet.

[enlarge]

A companion pavilion building will have a green roof.

On a large parcel it owns at 555 108th Ave. N.E. in downtown Bellevue, Vulcan Real Estate planning a 42-story office tower.

The project is in design review with the city and has its first public meeting at 6 p.m. Feb. 20 at City Hall, 450 110th Ave. N.E.

NBBJ is the architect.

The city says that a SEPA determination of non-significance is expected. The public comment period ends Feb. 14.

The proposal includes about 980,000 square feet of offices. The tower will be 600 feet tall. Under the city's new zoning, it will be Bellevue's tallest, largest structure.

It will replace five old low-rise retail buildings and be a few steps west of Bellevue Downtown Station (aka the current Bellevue Transit Center), where light rail service will begin in 2023.

A separate companion pavilion building will go on the north side of the site, closer to Northeast Sixth Street, which is the pedestrian connector from the transit center to Bellevue Square. That two-story, green-roofed structure will have a footprint of 16,125 square feet.

The tower will be on the south side of the site, closer to One Bellevue Center, separated from the pavilion by a plaza. Its footprint will be 39,173 square feet.

The project includes seven levels of underground parking with about 1,395 stalls. There will be around 40,000 square feet of retail, restaurant and commercial space in the pavilion and tower's two-story podium.

“Active use” space in the pavilion and tower will be around 24,000 square feet. For the tower, there will be about 15,900 square feet of terraces on levels three, 18, 31 and 42.

Overall project size is about 1.5 million square feet. Vulcan says it hopes to start construction in the first quarter of 2020, with completion in mid-2023. Vulcan estimates that the complex could accommodate up to 3,652 retail and office workers.

No general contractor or tenant has been announced; though, as usual, there are rumors about Amazon — accompanied by unconfirmed reports that it has decided to sublease its 722,000 square feet at Wright Runstad's Rainier Square, which is under construction in downtown Seattle.

The early 2020 start date would be unthinkable unless a tenant were already signed. Vulcan spent $50 million in 2017 to assemble the 2-acre site.

Meanwhile, to the south, Vulcan will redevelop the old Bellevue Plaza retail complex it owns, at 117 106th Ave. N.E., with three 17-story office towers totaling around 850,000 square feet. Graphite Design Group is the architect, and GLY will be the general contractor. And, again, there are unconfirmed rumors about Amazon's interest. That site is an easy 15-minute walk to the future light rail station.

The 555 108th team includes Site Workshop; EA Engineering; Tree Solutions; Bush, Roed & Hitchings; Farallon Consulting; GeoEngineers; and Transportation Engineering Northwest. No general contractor has been announced, but Turner is providing preconstruction services.