SEATTLE—With transit-oriented development springing up in many parts of the West Coast, it is no surprise that Seattle's emerging Roosevelt neighborhood would be a likely candidate for added development. Fireside Flats, a mixed-use residential building, is slated to begin in the fall of 2020, with an anticipated completion date of spring 2022.

Spanning four lots located at 831-845 NE 68th St. between Roosevelt Way NE and 8th Ave NE, the 87,711 square-foot Fireside Flats building will include approximately 98 apartment homes totaling 60,972 square feet and four live/work units totaling 2,800 square feet, with 39 below-grade parking stalls.

Pastakia + Associates, a Seattle-based property development firm specializing in mixed-use urban in-fill projects, is the developer. Project team members include Encore Architects for the design portion of the project.

“This is a great TOD site within immediate walking distance to shopping, Roosevelt High School and just a few blocks from Green Lake,” said Tejal Pastakia, Pastakia + Associates founder and principal, “We see this project as a great way to further pedestrian activity and public transit usage in this growing neighborhood.”

With a building facade composed to provide residents with private exterior spaces while maintaining an urban design presence within the transit-oriented district, the project will also include a rooftop amenity terrace with club lounge. Additionally, eco-friendly elements at Fireside Flats will include energy-efficient LED-light fixtures throughout the building, solar panels to subsidize power loads, storm water migration plans, a native and non-invasive planting palette, and roof membranes designed to reduce heat island effects.

“Roosevelt is one of Seattle's emerging transit-oriented development communities,” Pastakia tells GlobeSt.com. “Sound Transit's Roosevelt Station is set to open in 2021, mixing transit, one of Seattle's longest-standing high schools and a vibrant retail core together with new housing. We're glad to be in the midst of this community's exciting next chapter.”

Other construction projects are taking place on the Eastside. There, nearly 7,500 units are underway, headlined by Hyde Square, a 617-door complex in East Bellevue anticipated for completion early next year.

More than 60,000 apartments have been built across the Seattle-Tacoma metro since the start of the cycle in 2012, with at least another 20,000 units on tap during the next few years, according to a fourth quarter multifamily report by Marcus & Millichap. Construction will continue to be concentrated in the urban core, where more than 11,000 rentals are coming through the pipeline, led by a two-tower project with more than 1,100 units in the Denny Triangle.

Moreover, rent gains have begun to slow on the surge of new inventory. Seattle renters are benefiting more from a multiyear-long building boom as an abundance of new complexes in the urban core are fueling concession increases. Even with one of the nation's top job markets and robust in-migration trends, a surge of new units at the start of 2018 lifted vacancies across the market. The vacancy rate has fallen back near historical lows in the third quarter, while rent growth has largely slowed, even falling negative in multiple neighborhoods. Going forward, rent growth will return to a more normalized pace from the high-single-digit increases posted earlier this cycle as deliveries remain elevated, says the Marcus & Millichap report.

Instant Insights /

Multifamily Gravitates to Urban Core and Transit

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