December 1, 2023

With new architect, 770 SeaTac units near final approval

Rendering by Charles Morgan & Associates [enlarge]

The plan represents the biggest new apartment project near Angle Lake Station — and probably the largest multifamily effort in the city.

It's less clear now, as a large looming SeaTac apartment proposal gains more detail, as to whether the longtime family owner of a Pape Kenworth truck property will sell or self-develop the project.

The land at 20220 International Blvd. spans about 6 acres.

In a change of architects, Charles Morgan & Associates is now designing the seven-story, two-building, 770-unit project. (Axis GFA was the prior architect.) Synergy Construction is attached as both the builder and owner's rep.

The DJC first reported the plan in March. And, this week, the city of SeaTac issued a SEPA determination of non-significance for what it calls the Cymbaluk apartments. (That Everett family has since 1998 owned Kenworth, which joined Pape in 2007.) The public comment period ends Dec. 12.

The project includes some 734 parking stalls on two mostly structured levels. (About three dozen stalls would be reserved for shoppers.) But it's also about a 6-minute walk north to Angle Lake Station, so a very TOD site.

The large property is on the corner of South 204th Street; and it's also bounded to the east by 30th Avenue South. The project totals some 915,000 square feet, making it almost certainly the largest apartment project in the city.

To break up its considerable bulk, the architect has a diagonal connector separating the two buildings, north (Phase I) and south (Phase II), each with a kind of tapered E-shaped footprint. That pathway has public plazas on both ends; those would total some 30,000 square feet. Private courtyards facing the public connector path would have landscaping, dog areas, grilling stations and other outdoor amenities.

In the south building, over 7,000 square feet of retail/commercial space would face west to International Boulevard (aka state Route 99, aka Pacific Highway South). That's currently configured in three bays.

Apartments are to run from studios up to three-bedrooms. Some of the latter, at grade, would be townhouse-style units with mezzanines. Tenants would have about 243 bike stalls.

Construction is to be two levels of Type I-A concrete, with five levels of wood above. (One is a mezzanine, so the complex will present six stories to passersby.)

The team also includes Karen Kiest Landscape Architects; Insight Engineering, civil engineer; DCI Engineers, structural; Abossein Engineering, MEP; Sechrist Design Associates, interiors; North Peak Associates, surveyor; and Kimley-Horn, traffic consultant.