The full-block project is a joint venture of the nonprofit health care network and Vulcan Inc., the real estate arm of billionaire Paul Allen. Group Health's headquarters will occupy 185,000 sf; currently, they are located in nearby leased space at 6th Avenue and Wall Street. Callison is the architect for the project and GLY is the general contractor.

One of the new buildings will be six stories and the other building will be four stories. The four-story building will front Terry Avenue and include 129,000 sf of office space and 6,000 sf of retail. The six-story building will front Westlake Avenue include 160,000 sf of office and 25,000 sf of retail. Approximately 100,000 sf of office and all of the retail is available for lease.

Vulcan's VP of real estate Ada Healey told GlobeSt.com last fall that Group Health will occupy all of the office space in the building fronting Terry Avenue. In the Westlake Avenue building, Group Health will occupy the second floor and a portion of the third floor. As for the retail, Healey said Vulcan would like to see a restaurant take the retail space in the Terry Avenue building and expects small-to-medium retailers in the Westlake Avenue building.

At that time, Vulcan was marketing both the office and retail space on its own. "We may or may not engage a broker to help us with that," said Healey.

Across the street from the project is the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute. Vulcan Inc. owns about 60 acres in Seattle's South Lake Union neighborhood and currently has about 1.2 million sf under construction, with double that in the development pipeline. Vulcan's vision for the area is a hub of biomedical research uses blended with housing and retail.