Seattle Developer Plans New 31-story Downtown Office Building

Clise Properties has joined a growing list of developers jockeying to launch Seattle's next major downtown construction project.

The company plans to build a 31-story office and condominium tower at Seventh Avenue and Westlake Avenue North in the Denny Triangle. It would be Clise's first new building since completing the 1700 Seventh office high-rise in 2001.

Clise president Richard Stevenson said construction could be as early as next summer if it landed a major tenant for the building's 12 stories of office space -- a tall order in a city where the vacancy rate is more than 15 percent.

"There is a very good market for newer, class A, seismically modern office space," Stevenson said. The approximately $100 million building would combine 170 high-end condominiums above 230,000 square feet of office and 11,000 square feet of retail space on the ground floor.

After two years of lying low, Seattle's development community is stirring with new projects, many of them mixing residential and commercial elements.

Last week, Seattle Hotel Group submitted plans to build a hotel and condominium tower at First Avenue and Union Street. At least four other mixed-use projects are on the drawing board, from Portland developer Paul Brenneke's 21-story tower at Second Avenue and Pine Street to R.C. Heddreen's proposed hotel and condo high-rise at Eighth Avenue and Olive Street.

If history is a guide, not all of them will be built. But many developers are willing to go through the long and expensive process of getting city permits so they can start construction quickly when partners and financing fall into place.

"If you have a Master Use Permit you can get a building done in two to three years," Stevenson said. "If you have to start from scratch, it is four years plus."

In the meantime, several similar projects are already reshaping corners of the city. Paul Allen's company, Vulcan, is building 2200 Westlake, which will combine a Pan Pacific hotel with condominiums and an upscale grocery store.

And Bellevue developer Murray Franklyn is building Hotel 1000, a boutique hotel and condo project on the former Warshal's Sporting Goods site near Pioneer Square. Murray Franklyn is also building the condo portion of Seventh Avenue at Westlake.