The Seattle City Council has approved a bill that will exempt projects converting commercial buildings into housing from key development regulations and fees. Since the start of the pandemic, politicians and the public have wondered aloud if half-empty office buildings could become much-needed housing. Developers balked at the high price of such conversion projects and technical challenges, leading lawmakers to offer tax breaks and other enticing benefits to spur this type of project.
Mayor Bruce Harrell proposed the new bill as a step toward creating more housing and activity downtown. However, city staff estimates that while the bill could result in 1,000 to 2,000 apartments or condos in the next seven years, that’s a drop in the bucket compared to the 112,000 new homes that Seattle is projected to need between 2019 and 2044.
The bill exempts conversion projects from design review requirements, which can slow the momentum of such developments by months or even years. It will also remove requirements around the size of floor plates, landscaping and façade standards.
Conversion projects will not be broadly exempted from Seattle’s Mandatory Housing Affordability (MHA) requirements mandating that larger new projects must include some affordable housing units or if they pay into the city’s affordable housing fund. There will be no MHA exemption for conversion projects in downtown high-rise or mid-rise multifamily zones.
Several partial conversion projects may already be underway, including by Martin Selig Real Estate at a mixed-use tower in Belltown. Designers have submitted plans to convert 12 floors of office space into residential space. At a Belltown luxury apartment and hotel project currently under construction, the developers have said they hope to convert the hotel portion into about 100 more residential units.
Councilmember Tanya Woo, who herself converted a 1909 hotel in the Chinatown International District, is optimistic that the incentive bill will help reactivate downtown and provide much-needed housing, instead of leaving buildings empty.
This post was based on information found on Seattle Times and Puget Sound Business Journal.