combined with a local regulatory environment that is prone to delays (permitting, design review) — much less attractive to deploy capital right now relative to a few years ago when rates were lower

combo of interest rates + cost inflation (of which immigrant labor and tariffs are a part)

To date many have been hesitant to realize these losses in the hopes that the reduced downtown demand is transitory; hopes remain that return to office will juice demand. But I don’t think that is founded, especially for older buildings, and at some point that will become clear

My understanding is that commercial real estate, especially non-class A real estate, is currently overvalued. At some point, the owners will need to take a loss, and that might involve either the buildings selling to another landlord who will reduce leasing rates, or they themselves will reduce.

given the cost. if it costs $400,000+ to do a conversion on a unit, or more, well that's not really economical to pay. the city can help a lot more people by building an apartment building in, say, Beacon Hill, rather than deploying that limited capital for that purpose. but maybe theres opportunity

for some of the slightly older building stock (think, pre-90s?) that isn't necessarily considered Class A/premium, but is still hard to renovate relative to pre-war housing, it may be more feasible to tear it down.

for the city, using the building for real social housing is hard, especially /x

I don't have a great source for you but I think these are great questions and you're right to think about how the city/state can step in here, but I would bet it's not the most feasible just given the high costs here. In the downtown core, a lot of the value comes from the land, and so especially /?

NYT did an excellent piece on this, featuring a building in Tacoma!
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

The difference is mainly in the structural differences between pre-war and modern office buildings. Most of Seattle’s office stock is newer and harder to convert; pre-war buildings (like many in NYC) are architecturally much cheaper to convert.

henry art merch

When do they actually vote on the amendments? Next week?

it will have a concession area: parkways.seattle.gov/2025/02/25/e...

I do not think this is empty. I live near it, it’s just only open in the summer and on select days. It seems they will be open again on the 23rd.
marketfreshfish.com/park

The battery lot is currently being studied as a potential park (‘Portal Park’)

Btw: you can email this commission and cc your Councilmember (or do the opposite) as I just did
[email protected]

we’re trying