Rantz: Developer pauses massive residential project over Seattle crime crisis

Kevin Corbett, the CEO of Plus Investment (USA), waited over eight years for a master-use permit to build a 46-story residential tower near Pike Place Market. But he’s indefinitely paused the construction over the Seattle crime crisis.

“Unfortunately, I don’t see us going vertical anytime soon with the continued public safety concerns in the neighborhood,” Corbett told the Puget Sound Business Journal. “Open-air drug markets are still visible day and night on Second and Third Avenue. I know the city needs more resources, but I don’t see much new downtown commercial development happening until there is a stronger crackdown on these illegal activities.”

The Pike Towers project was slated to be two glass towers, one 46 stories and the other 16 stories. A rendering of the project, per the Real Deal, suggests ground-level retail.

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Why did the developer pause a massive construction in downtown Seattle?

It’s not surprising that a developer would pause a project in the downtown core. While tourism is recovering thanks to cruise season, the area can still feel like a ghost town with many workers still remote. Perhaps “ghost town” is less appropriate than zombie wasteland where fentanyl addicts waste away near the most used metro and light rail stops downtown. It’s fueling the area’s crime crisis.

Homeless addicts openly buy and use their drug of choice, usually fentanyl but sometimes meth, across the downtown core. Some stand tall, swaying back and forth, stuck in their high. Others have bodies contorted into shapes and positions you didn’t think possible. Others are so blissfully high, they don’t even notice the oozing, festering wounds on their arms or legs.

There’s trash everywhere. The smell of urine near on 3rd between Pike and Pine is so pungent you can taste it in the back of your throat. It’s what tourists first experience if they walk to Pike Place Market or take the light rail from the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.

Locals don’t want to even walk near the area. Why would they want to live there?

Is there a plan to address Seattle crime?

The residential project already had to pivot because of the deteriorating conditions in downtown. Originally slated as condominiums, the project switched to rentals. But now the project is paused, leaving needed housing units off the market because of city mismanagement from the mayor’s office.

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell has prioritized building more housing in the downtown core. Rather than address concerns from developers like Corbett, however, Harrell seems more interested in transforming offices — vacant because of the crime crisis — into housing. They’re “practically begging” developers to take on these office-to-housing conversion projects by offering incentives that they should be offering all developers. It’s a foolish plan that will only further stall downtown’s resurgence.

About a third of offices remain either empty or available for sublease in the downtown core. By replacing the office space with housing, you’re ensuring the downtown core won’t be able to attract businesses again. This effectively displaces businesses to other Seattle neighborhoods where they won’t have the same access to the metro or light rail for commutes. Worse, it could encourage businesses to stay remote.

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Where’s the media coverage?

Normally, news of such a high-profile project being put on pause would generate media coverage. For this one, not so much. It’s been relegated to business and real estate outlets.

Local media, like The Seattle Times, have gone out of their way to not blame the crime crisis for the problems in downtown Seattle.

Reports in The Seattle Times in June painted grim pictures of the commercial and residential real estate market in downtown Seattle. One article pointed to astonishingly low price tags for previously pricey commercial buildings, including the near-empty Pacific Place Mall and the Downtown Hilton. A second article noted the price of homes downtown is trending lower than the costs citywide.

Other reports noted that downtown housing prices took a nosedive and are now cheaper than the citywide average.

But these reports blamed COVID-19, not even mentioning the Seattle crime crisis.

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Sounding the alarms over Seattle crime

It’s not just projects that are quietly put on pause that should worry locals. High profile business leaders have been sounding the alarms about downtown as well.

Jeffery Judson-Baker, Investment Manager at Lake Union Partners, recently penned an open letter about the conditions downtown. He blamed the crisis on “misplaced compassion” that left “addicts to rot in doorways and the mentally ill to suffer on the streets.”

“I’ve had these conversations for a long time, kind of behind closed doors,” Judson-Baker explained on “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH. “Business leaders are often doing things behind the scenes, lobbying with local groups. Those are all things we certainly do, and at a certain point, me and my peers have just gotten fed up.”

‘This person’s fully naked, running around the street, screaming at six in the morning’

Judson-Baker said a recent walk from his home in Pioneer Square to a business meeting prompted his letter.

“I get up early in the morning and I wake up to somebody having a manic episode right outside my door, screaming at nothing,” he explained.

An hour later, it happened again.

“This person’s fully naked, running around the street, screaming at six in the morning,” he said.

He said his walk to a light rail station was a tour of human misery.

“Every person I see is either folded in half, looking for drugs, having a mental breakdown or asking for money to go, who knows,” he recalled. “And I finally get to the Third and Cherry light rail station, and there’s human waste in front of it, needles, people sleeping directly in front of the escalator, as you’re watching all of these commuters that are coming to the CBD core, which is dying actively. You see office occupancies way down.”

He called the area a “war zone.” And he’s speaking up because he loves his city and doesn’t want to see it continue to deteriorate. Now, he’s waiting for more local leaders and the mayor’s office to act.

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