May 17, 2022

Chapter Buildings break ground in the U District, now with two contractors

Rendering by CollinsWoerman [enlarge]

Looking southeast, the two buildings will face each other across Brooklyn.

On two parking lots ground leased from University District Parking Associates, the two planned Chapter Buildings received their first master use permit In January. The first and larger office building, at 4530 12th Ave. N.E., broke ground last month under general contractor Lease Crutcher Lewis. Shoring and excavation are now underway.

Touchstone and Portman Holdings are the developers; CollinsWoerman is the architect of record. Public records indicate a nearly $106.9 million construction loan from Bank OZK. The ground lease was also signed last month.

The second smaller east building, at 4536 Brooklyn Ave. N.E. is tentatively slated to begin next month under general contractor BNBuilders. Construction there is projected to last about two years. A MUP appears near.

Both buildings will target LEED Gold and Fitwel certification. CBRE is brokering the roughly 394,000 square feet of offices. They'll be linked by a plaza and cross-block connector, aka the Brooklyn Cut, which will span an alley. The Chapter Buildings will be a few steps north of U District Station.

The Chapter Buildings team also includes Portman Architects; Bush, Roed & Hitchings, surveyor; Coughlin Porter Lundeen, structural engineer; MacDonald Miller, mechanical and plumbing; Sequoyah, electrical; DCI, structural; AESI, geotechnical; GGLO, landscape architect; Urban Environmental Partners; Urban Renaissance Group, property manager; and Fuzzco, branding.

What Touchstone now calls Building I, to the west, will have 12 stories, about 240,000 square feet of offices and 9,000 square feet of retail/commercial space. Two levels of underground parking will have 200 stalls. That's proceeding under phased construction permits; CBRE says the goal for completion is late next year.

Building II, to the east, will have ten stories, with about 154,000 square feet of offices and 3,400 square feet of retail/commercial space. Two levels of underground parking will have 84 stalls.

The Mandatory Housing Affordability fee for both is about $8 million.

Portman, Touchstone and architect Johnson Braund are meanwhile planning a 14-story, 310-room hotel for a third UDPA lot about two blocks south. And over in Bellevue, Portman has filed plans for a 24- or 25-story office tower with some 453,390 square feet, to be designed by Perkins Will. That could replace the old office building at 700 112th Ave. N.E., with the Smith family selling or ground leasing the 1.8-acre triangle, just west of Interstate 405.