SEATTLE—Downtown office continues to bustle with activity, despite the talk of a downturn looming out ahead. Further displaying confidence in the downtown market, Seattle-based commercial real estate firm Urban Renaissance Group moved from its previous fifth-floor 8,055-square-foot space into an expanded headquarters office in Joshua Green Building. Located at 1425 4th Ave. in downtown, the new 13,000-square-foot space is located on the second floor of the historic building.

URG restored and repositioned the space in 2009, subsequently achieving the NAIOP Renovation of the Year Award that year. The space was adapted from retail space to office use.

“When this space opened up, we knew it would be a fun challenge to reposition it from retail to office space,” said Patrick Callahan, URG founder and chief executive officer. “As we welcomed Touchstone into our office, this became the perfect way to grow our downtown footprint. A second-floor space in downtown Seattle with as much access to daylight as this space is unusual, and we're so pleased to be here.”

URG selected the Seattle office of design firm IA Interior Architects to design the new space, which draws upon the energy and complementary cultures of the previous URG and Touchstone offices. The new space compels an even stronger and more creative environment for the organizations to continue to grow.

Through its design process, the team focused on revealing the original architecture while taking advantage of the expansive window line and large skylights washing the space in natural light. Using simple materials and a warm palette, the new headquarters expresses the character of both URG and Touchstone. The meeting room and office glazing treatment represents the streets of Seattle, Portland and Denver, which reflect URG and Touchstone's geographic presences.

The former tenant, Office Depot, covered and buried the original features for its retail space. Yet during construction, the team uncovered Joshua Green Building's original terrazzo floor tile dating back to the early 1900s.

The renovation also removed all previous ceiling systems to reveal the building's frame and structure while highlighting a well-organized infrastructure that serves the space. It further allowed for presentation of the seismic bracing that was the result of the URG-managed building restoration in 2009. The exposed cross-braces around the perimeter are painted in dark accent to anchor the finished space.

High-traffic and shared work areas are adjacent and strategically placed in the center of the office in order to allow for large gatherings and community events. The open kitchen, designed as a center hub for the office, features a mural commissioned by local artist Sam Wood Wilson to inspire and embody the values of the integrated company: invest, build and operate. The kitchen island was also custom-built to be movable for different gathering types and when it is in its home position, it is common to see employees making food or perched on the barstools having lunch. The foyer to the board room also features a custom collaboration table.

The team also uncovered two skylights during the design process allowing light to pour into both the board room and new kitchen space. With private offices lining the interior core—the team used significant interior glazing to transfer both the interior and perimeter daylight while consolidating the hard wall construction to a tight inner core. Open work space around the perimeter is washed in natural light.

As the renovated Joshua Green Building includes numerous green elements, the new office space does as well, including natural light, sustainable practices and live plants. With open sight lines and three skylights, plants thrive in the office.

“Given our culture of collaboration, community engagement and celebration, the large open kitchen adjoined to our formal board room with sliding glass doors is one of the most important design elements of this space, and it is incredibly well-built for large gatherings and community events, embracing and enabling our values of transparency, hard work and high-fives,” continued Callahan. “Our presence in this building is especially important given Joshua Green Corporation's investment in URG since 2012.”

Currently, the Joshua Green Building is more than 80% leased, with two vacancies including URG's former 8,055-square-foot full-floor suite on the building's fifth floor and an 8,055-square-foot full-floor suite on the building's sixth floor.

“Having URG's expanded downtown headquarters in the Joshua Green Building is especially meaningful to us as a company, given that we managed the comprehensive and very complex restoration of this iconic building together with the Joshua Green Corporation in our early years as a company,” Callahan tells GlobeSt.com. “Since that time, URG has grown its operating platform to more than 9 million square feet across Seattle, Bellevue, Portland and Denver. We believe this is the perfect location from which to continue our company's expansion and we're excited about working toward that goal in this beautiful, historic location.”

While at some point there will be a market correction, it appears to be later in the cycle as the region's employment continues to remain bright. Year-over-year growth (July 2017 to July 2018) grew by 3% at slightly more than 64,000 new jobs. The Puget Sound Economic Forecaster's third quarter 2018 report has a revised job growth forecast from the prior quarter, going from 2.4% to 2.5% in 2018, and more moderately from 1.2% to 1.4% in 2019.

The Conway report expects professional and business services to grow by 2.6% during the next two quarters which is a short-term positive for the regional office market. The unemployment rate is also expected to remain at or below 4% through 2019. These metrics, coupled with continued local positioning and growth activity by the tech titans have spurred confidence in the region's office market by developers and investors alike.

This can be evidenced by investor behavior thus far in 2018, driving cap rates consistently below 5% and pushing price points above $900 per square foot for the top product, according to a third quarter report by Kidder Mathews. The total office inventory for the region stands at 202.4 million square feet as of the third quarter of 2018, a nominal increase from last quarter. The current regional availability rate dropped to 9.27%, suggesting a positive near-term outlook for vacancy. The number of projects currently under construction stands at 13, with an associated office area of about 6.6 million square feet. Of this amount, 53% is pre-leased, indicating there is about 3.1 million square feet for the region to absorb.

Instant Insights /

Half of Under-Construction Space is Pre-Leased

Related Stories

Recommended For You