What are they building? Roosevelt neighborhood seeing construction boom

When you drive past Seattle’s Roosevelt neighborhood on I-5 at 65th, you can’t help but notice a cluster of construction cranes that have risen up over the past year, signaling a building boom in the area near Green Lake.

One of the cranes is part of a new apartment and retail complex under construction on NE 67th we recently told you about. Another is for the new Sound Transit station currently under development several blocks east. The third, just east of the freeway, anchors a massive new apartment complex we’re profiling in this week’s edition of “What are they building?”

The Eleanor Roosevelt spans what was 13 different lots with single family homes. In their place will be two seven-story apartment buildings with a courtyard split by what the developer calls a “woodland boardwalk.”

Named for both the neighborhood and legendary first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, the Eleanor will include 260 one and two bedroom apartments and two levels of underground parking with special areas for bikes with kid trailers and jogging baby strollers, says Jim Atkins, Managing Director of Mack Urban.

The building targets young, active families, and emphasizes the neighborhood’s pedestrian friendliness.

“Roosevelt is a highly walkable neighborhood,” Atkins says. “Eleanor’s grassy and abundant landscape provides peaceful space with fountains, swales and areas to linger if you are not simply going from point A to point B.”

Unlike many other new projects in the city, the developer aims to make the new complex affordable and family friendly for many of its new tenants. Mack Urban has enrolled in the city’s workforce housing incentive program, offering a number of units below 80 percent of the median income, and several two-bedroom units designed specifically with families in mind, Atkins says.

“As our neighborhoods become more populated, it’s important that we are building housing for everyone.”

The Eleanor is scheduled to open in the late spring of 2016.

If you’re curious about a construction project going on around the area, send us a note at feedback@mynorthwest.com and we’ll check it out for a future edition of “What are they building?”

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