August 9, 2021

Wright Runstad readies Block 15 at Spring District

Images by NBBJ/Wright Runstad [enlarge]

Wright Runstad and NBBJ recently filed plans for the Block 15 building, which would have 11 stories with an unspecified number of square feet.

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Block 15 at the Spring District is a corner site, now empty, and now using the probably provisional address of 1209 124th Ave. N.E. It's directly east of the former REI building now owned by Facebook, where the new Spring Boulevard meets 124th Avenue Northeast. That's on the east side of the development, directly north of the Block 16 building — which is leased to Facebook, which has thus far leased or purchased all the offices there.

Wright Runstad and NBBJ recently filed plans for the Block 15 building. It would have 11 stories with an unspecified number of square feet. More particulars will emerge when the plan formally enters design review. NBBJ expects that process will begin next year. The entire permit process is anticipated to stretch into 2023, with a groundbreaking that year or in 2024.

NBBJ's very preliminary design pushes the bulk of the building east above two podium levels, which have a diagonal offset to their floor plates. The box shape of the upper nine floors is given a pronounced bend, or wave, in both the east and west facades.

A green roof and solar panels are indicated. There would be large decks on the second and third floors, with their views directed inward and west to the main development. Smaller decks are planned for the upper levels as well.

Wright Runstad is requesting a revision to its existing city-approved master plan, from circa 2017. REI, which had owned its site and subsequent building, had originally planned a park on the Block 15 site — which totals about 2 acres. Wright Runstad and partner Shorenstein Properties repurchased that land for $22 million from REI in the fall of 2020, when Facebook paid REI $368 million for the empty new building.

The developer has to pay the city a fee for revisions to the Block 15 parcel, after its separation from the old REI parcel. Based on those numbers, the building could have around 175,000 square feet of offices.

Six levels of underground parking, to be accessed from 124th (the east side of the building), would have about 1,040 stalls.

About 1,902 square feet of retail, in two bays, is indicated on the north side of the building (on Spring). Also on that end of the building, there would also be a large bike room and shower facilities at grade.

The team includes Parametrix, civil engineer and surveyor; Fazio Assoc., landscape architect; and JMJ Team, permit expeditor.

There's no indication of a possible future tenant for Block 15, as is the case for Block 13 (also by NBBJ), which is now in design review. Those would be the seventh and sixth office buildings at the Spring District. In the other five, including the former REI building, Facebook has about 1.6 million square feet — most of it in planning or under construction. The light rail station will open there in 2023.

Facebook is thus far the only office tenant in the 36-acre development, but that could change. Broderick Group brokers the office space at the Spring District, which also includes about 800 apartments and some retail.