SEATTLE — Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell says the challenges facing downtown require the city to reimagine what’s possible. Converting empty offices into housing is part of the conversation, and the Office of Planning and Community Development is even turning it into a competition.
The competition is happening this month. The city is seeking teams that must include a downtown building or property owner working with a design or development firm to turn offices into residential spaces.
In Seattle, part of the dilemma downtown is that storefronts are fading away and there is a surplus of empty office spaces.
"It seems obvious that we have all this extra office space and a real need for housing. How about we convert some of that space into housing?” said Lyle Bicknell, the city's Principal Urban Designer who acknowledges the process is not that simple.
"Some buildings lend themselves for conversion more easily. You have to follow rules and regulations for safety and of course. It has to pencil. It has to work out economically,” Bicknell said.
Overcoming those obstacles is the focus of the city's competitive Call for Ideas with building owners and architect teams being invited to propose innovative solutions.
"Commercial office space in downtown Seattle right now is about 8.3 million square feet,” said Scott Blankenship, the Executive Managing Director at Colliers Puget Sound.
"Pre-pandemic we were a very vibrant downtown core, top five in the country. Since the pandemic we have seen about a 30% increase in vacancy across the region,” said Blankenship.
"Residential is the key to all of it, right? Because if the city is more activated then you can reduce the amount of problems down here,” said Rick Yoder.
Yoder who owns two downtown locations, Triple Door and Wild Ginger, says problems like drug deals and safety concerns continue to be an issue, but he acknowledges it was much worse a year ago.
"It was a disaster, and it really had us thinking about closing up shop but now we feel a little better. The city is making, I think, strides in the right direction,” said Yoder.
Moving forward, the city's focus is on finding a way to fill up empty spaces.
"Nothing helps shops like people shopping and if you have people living downtown that adds to the vitality,” said Bicknell.
In the city’s competition, the highest-scoring submission will receive $10,000. The two second-place entries will receive $7,500. The deadline for all entries is April 28.