Amazon building boom to last nearly a decade

After revolutionizing online sales, Amazon.com’s planned
development in Seattle’s Denny Triangle is shaping up to
be the city’s biggest collection of brick and mortar. But
architects have revealed the massive undertaking could
take at least 8 years to complete.

At a meeting last night with the city’s Downtown Design
Review Board, architects with NBBJ for the first time
discussed proposed timing for the 3.3 million square foot
development that will span three blocks, making it the
largest ever proposed downtown, according to the
Seattle Times.

The centerpiece of each block is a tower rising up to 37
stories, surrounded by several smaller buildings. The
architects told the board each would be connected by one
or two skybridges.

The blocks would be developed one at a time, with each
phase taking between two to four years, according to
architect John Savo.

The first phase also includes a 40,000-square-foot
auditorium-like building seating 2,000 that Amazon plans
to build along Lenora Street.

Amazon is also proposing street-level retail and a “retail
courtyard” at the South Lake Union Trolley stop at Seventh
and Westlake, and another significant chunk of open space
wrapping around the base of the high-rise at Eighth,
Westlake and Lenora, the Seattle Times reports.

The area proposed for the complex is mostly parking lots,
but several businesses including the Sixth Avenue Inn
hotel, the King Cat Theater and Toyota of Seattle would be
demolished for construction.