Bellevue Land Grab

June 23, 2018

Derek Pedersen

Market Expert
Associate, Savills Studley
Washington Licensed Real Estate Broker

Call 206-422-6198

Many key factors are underlying the development of the eastside, in particular Bellevue. The development of the light rail across Lake Washington will allow new office towers to battle directly with the likes of Seattle. Tech firms will now be able to compete with the Seattle behemoths, which has otherwise been held up due to long commutes and high traffic congestion. In addition, more Bay Area tech firms will move into the market to join Facebook and Google as they continue to expand their presence on the Eastside. The Bellevue skyline will be much different in the coming years…

 

Elev8 Project Downtown Bellevue

Elev8, the largest high-rise proposal to date in Bellevue, might get even bigger under its new owner.Stanford Hotels recently acquired a controlling interest in the four-skyscraper project, paying Plus Investment (USA) Inc. $128 million for the 4.6-acre property, according to public records.The first phase was to have two 40-story residential towers – one with condominiums and the other with apartments – on the east side of the property, across the street from the Neiman Marcus-anchored Bravern project.The second phase called for a residential tower and a 350-foot-tall office building on the property’s west side, where First Congregational Church operated for decades before moving.Stanford was gearing up to build the 500-foot-tall downtown Seattle tower, but is now increasing the height of the project by 10 percent as part of the city’s new mandatory affordable housing program.Located at 752 108th Avenue Northeast, the Elev8 project is slated to include up to 456,000 square feet of office space. With Bellevue’s new zoning rules allowing towers to be up to 600 feet tall, StanfordHotels is exploring their options and may increase the originally proposed height of the 300-foot office tower and 450-foot residential tower.Phase 1 would include two residential towers, six levels of underground parking, and one low-rise building, located on Northeast 8th Street and 110th Avenue Northeast.Phase 2 is being proposed as having one office tower, one residential tower, and eight levels of underground parking. This would be built on the site that was First Congregational Church and is currently two office buildings and Yuen Lui Photography.

 

Seattle based R.E Developer Vulcan has big plans for Downtown Bellevue

Vulcan’s development arm most well-known for redeveloping the 11.5 acres it owned in South Lake Union from a sea of parking lots to Amazon’s HQ has been on a warpath purchasing parcels in downtown Bellevue. Under the Downtown Livability Initiative newly instituted in Bellevue CBD – the first comprehensive downtown code update in 36 years – developers would be allowed build taller, narrower towers in exchange for creating open space. Vulcan’s first acquisition came with the 3.44 acre site at 117 106th Ave NE that includes a shopping center called Bellevue Plaza. In total,Vulcan paid $45.4 million for the 60,000 sf shopping center and adjacent parking lot. “Our purchase of Bellevue Plaza aligns with our focus on expanding our Pacific Northwest portfolio with value-add investments and urban infill projects,” said Ada M. Healey, vice president of real estate at Vulcan. Proposed plans, (Vulcan has yet to declare the development sites intended use office or multi-family) could potentially include 650,000-725,000 square feet of office space with 16 floors, and an average floor plate of 18,000-22,000 sf. On August 16th, 2016 Vulcan additionally acquired the parcel of land on the corner of 106th Ave NE and 2nd that is home to the local Taco Time paying about $14 million for the site. Potential plans here could include 150,000-160,000 sf of office space with 9 floors and an average floor plate of 22,000 sf. In Mid-2017, Vulcan’s tenacity for acquiring sites in Bellevue continued with the acquisition of 555 108th Ave NE. directly across from City Center and the downtown transit center, paying $24.25 million for the one acre site, where a 600 foot tower is a definite possibility. Two weeks later Vulcan gobbled up the adjacent acre, in total spending $50 million to acquire both acres along 108th. Two options are currently being reviewed, Option 1: Single Tower 700,000-865,000 sf with 34 floors, and an average floor plate of 22,000-24,000 sf. Option 2 would consist of two towers totaling 700,000-865,000 with 23 floors and an average plate size of 24,000 sf. Currently on the property are some low-slung buildings that house businesses such as Blazing Bagels, Oodles Noodles Bar & Grill and the U.S. Jiang RongXue Culture Exchange, “It’s early yet but we are looking at developing about 800,000 square feet of office on the site with subterranean parking and ground-floor retail,” Vulcan Real Estate Director of Real Estate Investment Strategy Lori Mason Curran emailed. Vulcan and other office developers are honing in on downtown Bellevue, where Amazonrecently leased up the entirety of 425 Centre and WeWork is taking floors every other month. There are 51,000 jobs in downtown Bellevue, and city officials forecast that number will grow to 72,700 by 2035.

 

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