July 2, 2024

ACG lays down $11M for Lynnwood apartment site

Rendering by American Capital Group [enlarge]

Enso (aka Kinect II) will rise directly north of the nearly completed Ember; both are walkable to the light-rail station.

As planned, American Capital Group has acquired most of a Lynnwood development site where it will build a seven-story, 316-unit apartment project. Snohomish County recorded the $9.5 million sale last week for a tear-down retail building at 4001 198th St. S.W. Brokers were not announced for a sale worth about $145 per square foot.

The property hadn't traded in decades; both parties used LLCs in the transaction.

A second smaller sale from a separate owner should soon follow. (Update: ACG now says that almost $11.5 million has been invested in the land.) That will give ACG almost 2 acres, about a 15-minute walk north from Lynnwood City Center Station, where light-rail service is expected begin on Aug. 30.

The apartment project began as Kinect II (ACG's nearby 239-unit Kinect wrapped in 2021), but now seems to be going by Enso. ACG is both the architect and contractor for the project, with no announced start date. Construction should take about two years.

May had been the goal to break ground, per the city of Lynnwood, which has granted the project an eight-year multifamily tax exemption. Unlike the 12-year variety, it doesn't require the inclusion of affordable units. The city estimates the Enso project value at $177 million. There's no sign yet of a construction loan. ACG says it will break ground in July.

Total project size is around 463,000 square feet. That includes two levels of structured parking, with 397 stalls. About 4,235 square feet of retail is planned on the building's south side (198th).

Apartments will run from one- to three-bedrooms, in a range from about 459 to 1,341 square feet. Amenities will include two central courtyards totaling around 14,413 square feet, both with barbecue stations and other amenities; and a pair of seventh-floor clubhouses, with terraces, on the southwest and southeast corners.

ACG says that LEED Silver certification will be sought. Construction is to be Type V-A wood over Type I-A concrete. The team also includes Fossatti Pawlak, structural engineer; SCJ Alliance, landscape architect; and Bush, Roed & Hitchings, surveyor and civil engineer.

The project will rise on the corner of 40th Avenue West, east of the city-owned Goodwill store — eventually planned to be a park — and about a block west of the freeway. It's also directly north across 198th from the nearly completed 361-unit Ember, from One Trent.