Seattle Breaks Ground on West Coast's First Residential Highrise of 2024

As a new 45-story apartment tower goes up at elephant car wash site, Seattle is building apartments at a rapid pace – but a slump may be on the way.

In mid-August, developer Holland Partner Group broke ground on Sloane, a 45-story apartment complex on the site of the former Elephant Car Wash near the Space Needle. The 442-unit tower is, according to the developer, the first residential skyscraper to start construction on the West Coast of the United States in 2024 amid a cooling market.

Mayor Bruce Harrell was on hand for the Sloane groundbreaking to make the case that his Downtown Activation Plan is gaining steam – and that the city’s efforts to boost housing construction (including recent bills to exempt downtown projects from design review and streamlining permits for accessory dwelling units or ADUs) are working.

Although Seattle has already produced 6,500 new apartments through the first half of 2024 according to City data, there are troubling signs that permitting and construction of multi-family residential buildings – despite the example of the Sloane project – may be slowing down in Seattle. The stream of projects entering the permitting pipeline is slowing to a trickle, which will eventually force a major slowdown unless applications rebound quickly.

https://www.theurbanist.org/2024/10/15/seattle-breaks-ground-on-west-coasts-first-residential-highrise-of-2024/

Hope they're all affordable.