More than $4 billion in construction underway in downtown Seattle by year’s end
Mar 10, 2017, 9:36 AM
Downtown Seattle had another record-setting year for construction, according to the Downtown Seattle Association. (KIRO Radio)
(KIRO Radio)
Downtown Seattle is still growing.
The Downtown Seattle Association found there was $4.4 billion in construction going on in the area by the end of 2016. That, according to the association, is “four times” as much development that occurred during the city’s low point in 2010.
By the end of last year, 68 buildings were under construction in the downtown core. Of those, 47 were residential.
There were 27 buildings completed in 2016, in downtown. There are currently 51 buildings under construction.
Last year also saw Seattle take a healthy lead in the country’s crane race. In October, Seattle had 58 cranes operating in the city. Of course, that’s across the entire city.
In downtown, construction activity on residential, office, and hotel buildings reached its highest point since 2005, according to the association.
The geography used for the association’s analysis are the 12 neighborhoods of downtown, from South Lake Union south to SoDo and Uptown and Belltown east to Capitol Hill to First Hill and the International District.
“Twenty sixteen was a fantastic year downtown, with growth in parks and public spaces, along with private development,” said DSA President and CEO Jon Scholes. “Two of the last three years, the fastest growing demographic in downtown has been children. Our residential population continues to increase and developers are planning years down the road when we expect to have even more families and workers in the heart of the city. There are 47 residential buildings alone under way and, combined with commercial work, we will nearly double the number of finished projects in 2017 compared to last year.”
