Downtown Seattle Ross Headed for Resi Redevelopment

As Ross Dress for Less prepares to close its downtown Seattle location on Jan. 16, a builder has emerged with a plan for the retail site.

Building Reimagined, a partnership between architecture firm Clark/Barnes and contractor BNBuilders, has proposed building a 21-story, 340-unit residential tower at 301 Pike Street where Ross has been in business for three decades, the Puget Sound Business Journal reported. Building Reimagined is working with Art Wahl, who owns the property along with three partners.

The owners plan to make a decision on whether to move forward with the retail-to-resi project within the next 120 days. “I’m 99 percent convinced that the city wants [the tower project] to happen,” Wahl told the Business Journal.

The design calls for 340 apartments at an average of 790 square feet. The building would feature two levels of above-grade parking and additional subterranean parking. The tower would also have between 8,000 and 10,000 square feet of ground-floor retail.

By utilizing mass timber to build the structure, developers would be able to make progress fast, W. Scott Clark, principal at Clark/Barnes, told the Business Journal.

“We’re going to be able to erect each story every two weeks,” Clark said. “It’s fast, it’s quiet, it’s manageable within a dense urban environment.”

Construction costs are estimated between $160 million and $180 million. Building Reimagined is still in need of a general partner or co-developer to help secure financing for the project.

“We’re as shovel-ready as you could get without fully permitted plans,” Jason Limp, president of BNBuilders, said. “The only thing that’s going to stop this from getting done is a lack of dollars.”

Building Reimagined is involved in other developments in the Puget Sound region, including a proposed 16-story, 140-unit residential project in the A.E. Doyle Building near Pike Place Market, the Business Journal reported.

— Chris Malone Méndez