Erika Sommer, journalism student at UW, writes:
Stone Way North is about to become more busy with the construction of three new apartment complexes up and down the busy thoroughfare.
T.J. Lehman is the development manager at Mack Urban, a real-estate development and management firm. His company is one of the developers on an apartment project called Ray on 3636 Stone Way N.
Lehman said the demand for new developments in Wallingford is being driven by two things. One is steady job growth in Seattle.
“Jobs are a big thing we as developers follow, and the job growth in Seattle has been phenomenal,” Lehman said. “People are very excited about Seattle right now and there are many people investing capital into the city.”
Another is livability. Because Wallingford is walkable and transit oriented, with close proximity to downtown, people want to live here.
Meredith Everist is the principal at Baylis Architects and in charge of the project on 3636 Stone Way N. She is also in charge of a project still in the design-review and permitting stage on 3627 Stone Way N., which does not have a name yet. Both projects will be apartments with small retail establishments on the ground floor.
Everist said she has heard at different seminars and with different clients that there is a heavy demand for more apartments in the area. People don’t want to commute far.
“With Brooks moving into the area and more high-tech industries in Fremont, there is just a lot of people working in those areas. Having more opportunities for living close by seems to be desirable,” Everist said. “It is a very popular area for millennials and generation Y people, and the jobs that are nearby in the Fremont area suit them.”
Further down the street construction on another apartment complex is underway at 3801 Stone Way N. Julie Edwards of general contractor BN Builders is the construction project manager on this project called Bowman Stone Way.
Edwards said it will feature several underground levels of parking, commercial retail space, and four or five levels of apartments above. She said they are currently on the street level building stage, and they will be starting on the first floor soon.
Stephanie Evans is the developer’s project manager for Legacy Partners, which is the developer, owner, and manager of the Bowman Stone Way project.
“We love Stone Way and we think it is very exciting and the character is a mix of old and new,” she said.
Evans also said they are strong believers in building urban projects that will have less impact because people can commute on transit. She said this is also a great location to bike to work from.
Evans said they hope to be finished with the project in early 2016, with pre-leasing likely to begin 60 days before the opening.
The 3636 location will likely be done in the next few months, and construction on the 3627 project will most likely start in the beginning of the summer.
The 3627 location is currently the site of Rodda Paint and Morgan’s Electric and Plumbing, which will be torn down in the next few months. Rodda Paint will most likely relocate.
Information on the progress of 3801 Stone Way N. can be located at bowmanstoneway.com and the 3636 Ray project can be found at baylisarchitects.com. Information on the plans for the 3627 development location can be found at the Seattle.gov department of planning and development.
With these new apartments opening up there is going to be a lot more people on Stone Way/Wallingford and Fremont. I hope metro plans to add lines to the existing downtown routes. Also a grocery store in the Bowman building would be a dream come true. I live in the Prescott and without a car grocery shopping can be a nightmare.
That sucks that Morgan’s is going away. It has been awesome to not have to go a big box chain store to buy plumbing stuff.
Also, it’s a bit ironic that a developer is praising the “mix of old and new” on Stone while at the same time ripping out much of the “old”. And I support the densification of Stone Way, I just don’t appreciate disingenuous developers.
Is Fremontuniverse reporting on the same thing and claiming it’s in Fremont? 🙂
Nice post, Eric, thank you!
Maggie, based on the neighborhood of Freelard, I’m guessing that part from Stone to Aurora will become known as either Freeingford or Wallingmont.
Too bad nobody has given any care into integrating the style of these developments with the neighborhood. Additionally, generally speaking they are all hideous with multiple clashing colors and materials. There are ways to design classy modern architecture and apparently the people pouring money into Seattle have terrible taste.
@evon,
Maybe we should resurrect the old Edgewater name for the area between Stone and Aurora:
http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&File_Id=3461
I could definitely get behind it.
Any guesses as to what the rental rates will be? Will any of my “millennial and generation Y” friends be able to afford it? I’m guessing not….
/rob
As the residential overbuilding juggernaut is rolling over Stone Way in any case, I guess the only open question is what will happen with the commercial street front. More exercise machines, hair salons? I’m sure the dearth of vital street front business is mostly down to just how hard it is to start and run a viable business, but I also have a hunch that these big residential projects aren’t the easiest place for an interesting business to happen.
For example, talking to one guy who’s been there, he had to make his shop sort of nominally part of a chain, before they’d deal with him. They don’t really want to be in the commercial lease business, they just have to because they’re required to put in commercial space on the street, and they prefer to deal some entity with a business office who won’t be any kind of headache. I don’t know that there’s anything we can do about this kind of problem, just seems like it would be a shame for Stone Way to be lined with blocks of chain stores.
Having watched the build up (after two years fallow) of the “Tangletown” area of Greenlake after living on Meridian Ave N for 10 years it is interesting to hear from both the current tenants of the condos thrown up (pun intended) and the business owners of the leased buildings. They have complained about shoddy construction standards. Many condo tenants have sued the builders due to massive internal problems.
The wonderful Honey Bear Bakery, a literal community member was driven out by the uber greedy Bellevue landlord and it sat empty for two years. No one could afford the new rent. We were all daily customers, getting our graduate degrees and doing our homework there. Now it is Zokas, a place with revolving employees and an owner who is not known and never present.
As a former business owner in central Fremont where I had an office for 11 years, I watched Fremont transition from an artistic biker hangout with very affordable rents to a pretentious stuffed shirt balloon priced yuppie enclave. I seldom see anyone over 60 living there, or minorities. It is turning Kirkland which should be perceived as a horror.
And the multicolored “design modern” buildings are faded, with their “colors” looking awful as they age and are not maintained. The cultures of these neighborhoods are now dead. Now Wallingford has it’s cultural head on the block.
Notice that multitudes of empty overdeveloped apartment and condo buildings in Ballard. Forever empty. What a shame. One community that long long ago learned how to stop the parasitic succubi developer sprawl is Cannon Beach. They incorporated into their bylaws very strict building standards, ie no McDonalds, Wendy’s, etc. allowed ever. No huge condos either. Thus it remains the lovely small resort time that attracts many visitors. They have an extremely active city council that does battle with succubi devs.
Seattle now belongs to developers, high tech workers and meth heads. Good job city council!
Fremont Universe’s illegal attempt to annex the superior nation of Wallingford will not be tolerated. This kind of cross border aggression will be met with force. There’s a reason their national symbol is a troll.
I wonder where the boarders are…I’m on 40th/Stone in the east side of Stone and I’m in Wallingford. Cross the street to the 711 and your in Fremont. The Brooks is in Fremont too. Some are trying to coin that intersection Stone34. Northlake would be fine, even lower stone.
Great, more hideous “modern” architecture to squint at in Seattle. It’s like an uber-crap version of a Mondrian. Way to go!
Hm, that part of Wallingford is rather far from me, but my recollection is that Zoka is a block away from where Honey Bear used to be, and Zoka’s owner is far from unknown, very active and high profile. Just a side point. Anyway, the effect of excessive commercial rents is sure not healthy for a neighborhood.
I’ve heard the border was once Wallingford Ave, so technically Stone Ave is in Fremont. And Frankie, even tho Fremont’s national symbol is the troll, Wallingford has no national symbol. So the country with a symbol prevails.
Re construction: I agree! What can be done with shoddy, ugly, insensitive construction!?!?! How can we do something about how awful and ugly most new building is in Seattle? And how did it go so unregulated and sucky???
I live at 40th & Whitman, 1 block off Aurora, and I live in Wallingford, not Fremont.
North of 38th, Wallingford’s borders go all the way to Aurora. South of 38th, I’m told the border is Stone Way, although I’d listen to arguments that say the border is Troll Ave.
Annie, that was brilliant. Thank you for summing up my feelings exactly– especially in regards to the rape of Fremont. It’s unrecognizable today, both in spirit and in body. It has lost its soul, its flavor, its funk, its vibe.
Back in the 90’s I used to walk from lower QA to Fremont nearly every Sunday, perusing the kitschy thrift stores and incense shops, the handmade kite shops, and retro shops like the Glamorama, and grab some non-pretentious grub at the Longshoreman’s Daughter (they made the best tahini over brown rice), and just walk the neighborhood admiring the imaginative spirit of the hippie sidewalk gardens draped in Wisteria and filled with 10ft tall sunflowers, scarlet creeping phlox, and rainbow windsocks flapping in the breeze.
Fremont used to be a laid-back kinda place that has now been bleached and stripped of any personality and just like Ballard and Capitol Hill has been gentrified by the flavorless, soul-sucking tech companies and drones of millennial pod people who inhabit these modern monstrosities.
Wallingford, take heed, you are next.
The city’s designated “Fremont Urban Village” apparently extends into what most of us consider Wallingford, following Suzy Burke’s land holdings along N 34th, even east of Stone. That means that (her) Fremont community council can represent that area, even though there aren’t any Fremont residents nearby – very convenient. The troll may not be for real, but there are entities over there that we need to watch out for.
Fremont sucks now! Thanx Suzy!
Whatever. Believe it or not, there are good things about neighborhoods that reinvent as well. Will I miss Morgan’s? No. I can drive to their Ballard location if I need a part. Rodda? Soulless parking lot. Site of Brooks? Was soulless parking lot with ghetto Subway. Stoneway Roofing? Maybe we get trees in front on Stone now. Their back parking lot converted to apartments? No barbed wire lot with graffiti and 6 am forklifts on Saturdays? Sign me up!
We can all thank the neo-Mondrian-esque appearance of a lot of the new construction on the current tastes of the city’s design review board members. The new chain hotel located on Aurora Ave between North 39th and 40th Streets was proposing to adapt it’s trademark appearance (a traditional-Americana look of red brick exterior with white trim around windows and architectural features) to the structure of the new building. But the design review board insisted on a panelized, low texture exterior and “modern” style glazing (plain windows), with possible accents of another material on the building. Their reasoning was that it would better tie in with other new construction in the city and make the area look updated. The result is what looks like a huge cardboard box with plain windows, and patches of stone veneer where customers come into contact with the building (entrance/exit/patio).
Honestly, I’ll just happy when the “charcoal/white/stainless/yellow Hardie Board exterior with exotic wood accents” fad passes.
Well, in their defense, I can sort of picture the problem with sort of sort of New England Americana building planted in the middle of the predominate style on Aurora. That style can look great in its place, preferably surrounded by giant old hardwood trees, but could be tacky here. I don’t know, didn’t see anything, but the drawings shown to the design review board tend to be pure fiction anyway. I wish they could have exercised that kind of influence over the condos now getting ready to stick out like a sore thumb next to me, but if wood accents is all we’re going to get, take it or leave it, I guess I’ll take wood accents.
Breaking up the surface of a building façade is Architecture 101, doing it tastefully is a little more advanced. I haven’t looked real hard at it, but the new big residential building on Woodland Park and 38th or so looks at least inoffensive, and nice wood accents. In Fremont, apparently.
I can’t say I’m thrilled at the new buildings, but this is not sprawl, as someone described it above. It is the opposite. The kind of transit we’re getting built (at long last) requires a lot greater density. You want sprawl, go out to the suburbs where nothing is in walking distance.
I miss the old Fremont, Ballard, and soon to be lost Wallingford, but better up than out. It might help expand bus service on Stone.
Agreed, Amy. We should be making sure Seattle has enough capacity for everyone who wants or needs to live here. My only regret is that the city council has not figured out a way to make low income housing more of a reality. Unfortunately, even at this level of density, the housing will just be to expensive to build to accommodate many low income people. The developments either need to be taller, or accommodate more people (i.e., no parking).
I’ve been part of a clinic called Stillpoint on Stoneway for 25 years. I’ve got nothing good to say about the new construction. Our building will be coming down in 3 to 5 years as well. Stoneway will be nondescript. What a wonderful era it had been!
I am a little wary of commenting on posts concerning the change that is going on Wallingford and Fremont. It’s a little too easy to broad brush everything be it new people moving in or new buildings as being soulless, Having lived in Wallingord/Fremont for 20+ years, I can walk easily between the two, I have witnessed a lot of change happen in the neighborhood(s). I understand that cities are constantly changing, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse (Detroit anyone?). It seems that everyone is now the purveyor of taste for everyone else. It’s always the ones that decry the change that whine about how things used to be and how the new developments lack soul or character and how they should ‘fit’ into the neighborhood more. I’m sorry to say but that bungalow-izing or brick-efying these new buildings will not necessarily create character or soul for a neighborhood. Most of Wallingford is single-family, bungalows, that’s fine, I live in one myself but these new buildings serve a different purpose, housing for an increasingly densifying city. From what I can see, they are mostly concentrated along the main corridors of Stone Way and along 45th. We all have our own personal tastes and aestethics but imposing it on others is contentious and often futile, it still will not solve the problem of what do we do with the influx of people. How do we incorporate them into the neighborhood/community? I doubt they are all soulless drones, at least I hope not. I personally like the transition of the light industrial area of Stone Way. Densification is a reality and I really can’t think of a better area to develop for that purpose. It’s better than they start creeping into our sacred single family lots. One can hope with the increased densification that we get better transit service to handle the increased number of people.
I too have witnessed what happened to Ballard with it’s empty retail spots but retail is another area in flux. With the advent of internet shopping, whether a retail brick & mortar store survives will have to depend on it being unique and or offering a needed service to the community it’s situated in. I personally had no need for an incense shop, not so good teriyaki, hippie looking clothes,or mediocre food. I am very happy with Joule, The Whale Wins, Revel, Pomerol, Manol, EVO, Brooks, Tilth, Ophelia’s, Molly Moon’s, Book Larder, Roux, Sirena’s etc. Sure there are other things that I hope will come to the neighborhood(s) perhaps a branch of Skillet Diner for good diner food. To broad brush on my end, I brought an out of town friend to Fremont, he said banks and Thai restaurants for Wallingford, pharmacies and Japanese restaurants. All of I am saying is that it It takes time and a mix of things for a neighborhood to develop character especially a rapidly changing one. It’s rather an organic process as opposed to a planned one. Aestethics aside, I think it’s too early to tell what what will happen will all the new development. Nothing has developed a patina yet.
These new apartment buildings (in-process and planned) will now doubt have fewer parking spaces than housing units (people aren’t supposed to have cars).
And many of those renters will attempt to park on the street in the ‘hood. That’s while most of south Wallingford is now RPZ.
Ask Jean Godden (now running in district 4 (us)) about that at her kick off (Mountaineers on Thursday night); she seems to have some big money behind her.