Seattle to hold call for ideas to make downtown more residential


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The Seattle Office of Planning and Community is holding a “call for ideas” competition to convert Seattle Downtown commercial office spaces to residential use.

The competition goes along with Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell’s newly announced Downtown Activation Plan. The plan looks at immediate strategies to make downtown safer and more welcoming. This includes filling vacant storefronts, converting office space to housing and creating what his office calls a “linear arts-entertainment-culture district.”

“We need to recognize that (Seattle’s downtown) office space may never fill up as before,” Harrell said in his state of the city address in February. “We need more housing options, so let’s make downtown affordable for everyone who wants to live there.”

Building owners and architect teams are invited to pitch solutions, to identify obstacles to conversion and suggest potential policy and regulatory changes. The deadline for entries is April 28, 2023. Qualified entries will be on display at the Seattle Convention Center in late May.

“We seek visions for downtown that celebrate the intersection between residential, business and civic activities,” Seattle Office of Planning and Community Acting Director Rico Quirindongo said in a statement. “We will foster ideas that expand the concept of downtown as a vibrant residential neighborhood, in addition to its history as a place of commerce, entertainment and tourism.”

Requirements for submissions include a description of the segment of the housing market your proposal would seek to serve; incentives the City of Seattle may provide or potential policy changes that would make completion of the project easier; and cost estimates for construction and a rough order of magnitude estimation of rent or income generated from the converted space.

The top three scoring submissions will receive awards amounting to $10,000 for the top submission and $7,500 for the two second place entries. All submissions that meet the minimum required contents will receive a nominal honorarium in recognition of the time and expertise, according to the city. Awarded amounts will be decided after the submission deadline has passed and will be subject to the number of submissions and budget availability.

The Downtown Seattle Association’s economic recovery report shows that there were 55,424 occupied units in the Downtown Seattle area in quarter one of 2023. That is the most in the area’s history. The downtown area continues to be the most densely populated neighborhood in Seattle with over 104,000 residents, which is an increase of more than 70% since 2010, according to the association.