By Mary Prenon
Vulcan Inc. has acquired a 1.4-acre development site for $17.9 million, adding 270,000 square feet of multifamily inventory to its 7.9 million square feet of commercial space and 3,390 residential units.
Located at 1600 132nd Ave NE, near the future location of the Bel-Red/130th Light Rail Station, the site was purchased from SummerHill Apartment Communities for development into a multifamily community to accommodate the Eastside’s growing population.
This marks Vulcan’s first property acquisition in Bellevue outside of the central business district. “We are excited about expanding into the Bel-Red Corridor,” said Ada M. Healey, chief real estate officer for Vulcan Inc. “The development opportunity aligns with our values and goals around sustainable, transit-oriented development.”
Vulcan plans to develop an eight-story building with 249 residential units and construction could start as early as the fourth quarter of this year. “We are bullish on the future of the rental apartment market along the Bel-Red corridor and enthused with the opportunity to deliver a new project around the same time as the light rail station is completed,” said Scott Matthews, Vulcan’s senior director of acquisitions and residential development, “We intend to leverage our experience developing and leasing up 3,000 rental units in Seattle to attract a similar renter in Bellevue.”
The property is slated to open in mid-2023, and future residents will be just two stops from Amazon’s downtown Bellevue campus, one stop from Facebook’s Spring District campus and two stops from Microsoft’s Redmond campus. “We anticipate the creation of over 50,000 new jobs, driving strong apartment rental demand and rent growth in the years ahead,” added Healey.
Runberg Architecture Group, which has partnered with Vulcan Real Estate on multiple other multi-family projects, is the architect of record. Vulcan is also in the process of developing two million square feet of office space in Bellevue’s central business district at 555 Tower and West Main, both of which have been leased to Amazon and are scheduled for completion in 2023. In addition, the company is undertaking a 350,000 square foot build-to-suit office building for Google in Seattle’s South Lake Union neighborhood.
Seattle-based Vulcan Real Estate directs all real-estate investment activities for Vulcan Inc., a Paul G. Allen company. Since 2000, the firm has delivered $4.4 billion in assets in 46 projects. More than 70 percent of these developments are South Lake Union, renowned as one of the largest urban redevelopment projects in the country. The company also has 2.4 million square feet of commercial space under construction, as well as plans for an additional 1.7 million square feet of commercial space and 2,565 residential units in Seattle and the greater Puget Sound area.