October 30, 2025

From plywood to pliés in SoDo?

Photo via Avenue 55 [enlarge]

Track 6 has been slowly gaining tenants since it opened two years ago, a little south of the Spokane Street Viaduct.

Developed by Avenue 55 in the Duwamish area, a little south of SoDo and the Spokane Street Viaduct, the Track 6 industrial building has been slowly gaining tenants.

It opened two years ago at 3847 First Ave. S., on land still owned by Compton Lumber, a partner in the speculative four-story project.

Newmark is the broker for the 210,774-square-foot building, and has landed Electric Era Technologies and Stone Trend as tenants to fill the first floor. Leasing materials also show a new tenant on the third level, with 23,490 square feet claimed (about half that floor).

Photo via Newmark [enlarge]

PNB SoDo School will take up about half of the third floor.

And this week came a new tenant improvement plan from architect Mithun, filed on behalf of the Pacific Northwest Ballet School. It's aptly dubbed the PNB SoDo School.

PNB now has two school branches: one at Seattle Center, its permanent home, in the Phelps Center. That's the two upper levels of the Exhibition Hall, one of the original structures from the 1962 World's Fair. (It later underwent significant interior modifications.)

The second is in Bellevue, aka the Francia Russell Center, in leased space within an 1960s-era industrial building. That's a short walk east of BelRed Station, in an area where such old buildings are rapidly giving way to new apartments. That 4-acre property, long owned by a local family, isn't publicly listed. PNB's Bellevue school was designed by Mithun, and opened in 2017. It replaced a prior school facility that was razed to make way for the light-rail line.

Photo from Mithun [enlarge]

Set to design the space is Mithun, which also designed PNB’s Francia Russell Center in Bellevue.

So is the Duwamish-SoDo location to be a third outpost for the PNB School? PNB says yes, and it's to be similar to the Bellevue operation, “with an emphasis on lower-level classes.” The build-out and move-in dates are some distance off, but we'll eventually hear the pitter-pat of soft ballet slippers echoing in the lofty space.

Interestingly, three years back, PNB and Mithun considered an expansion of the Phelps Center, which would've extended south toward the International Fountain and lawn. That scheme was subsequently dropped, for being too costly and complex — in part because the Exhibition Hall had some landmark protections. A simpler renovation was then proposed. But that plan has been quiet for the past year.

At Track 6, the individual brokers at Newmark are Evan Lugar, Thad Mallory, Jesse Ottele and Josh Satterlee.