Visit Denny Way in the Seattle area between Boren Avenue and Yale Avenue in 2021 and you may think you’re in a city like Vancouver to the north. The northern edge of Denny Triangle is rapidly changing. Gone are retail shops, industrial-zoned sections and parking lots. In their place is a series of residential apartment towers reinvigorating a busy commuter corridor.
Walking from Belltown, I found myself looking up in awe at all the progress made. (That’s what happens when you work from home for more than a year!) There are new buildings popping up on virtually every corner for about five blocks along Denny Way and a few more on nearby streets.
Climb the steep hill east of Westlake Avenue and you come across the first new structure – The Ivey on Boren (2019 Boren Avenue), where Boren meets Lenora Street and Denny Way. That’s the site of a 44-story, mixed-use apartment with space for 400 or so units, 350-plus parking spaces and a 180-seat, ground-floor performance auditorium for Cornish College of the Arts. The building is named for former Cornish student and abstract expressionist artist William Ivey. It is targeted for opening in spring of 2022.
Across the street (officially in South Lake Union), two towers are nearing completion – Onni South Lake Union (1120 Denny Way), 41-story residential buildings with about 1100 units (including a reported 272 furnished corporate suites). The site will also have a midrise office structure with an estimated completion timeline of 2022.
Kitty-corner from Onni, Denny Center (2014 Fairview Avenue) just completed laying its top floor on a 437-unit, mixed-use apartment. Denny Center offers a non-traditional sloping design, with a dramatic, 4-story podium that fills a triangular footprint between Denny, Fairview and Virginia Street before meandering 41 stories into the sky with a wider perimeter on the lower floors. You must see it for yourself:
Arguably the most adventurous residential “experience” is rising on Denny between Virginia and Yale Avenue – but the name may be confusing. It’s called 1200 Stewart, named for its eventual primary address on the opposite side of Denny Way. This place will be special, with a twin, 48-story, 1050-unit, mixed-use apartment community that, when completed, may resemble a pair of sail boats, thanks to the wavy balconies hugging the exterior.
For construction geeks, it’s rare to see a pair of towers rise from the ground at the same time. New York City’s famed World Trade Center towers and even the local Insignia Towers were built one at a time. Not this pair on Denny Way.
Making 1200 Stewart truly special is what’s planned between the towers. Building developer Westbank – which is constructing First Light in Belltown and other residences in Bellevue – purchased a decommissioned Boeing 747 fuselage and plans to hang it above the walkway that separates the towers. Below will be a lounge area.
“The rear assembly, the landing gear and the nose of the plane will remain intact, with only the wings being shortened to fit into the space,” Westbank wrote in its project description. Among the retailers will reportedly be a Trader Joe’s.
In addition, music promoter Live Nation is said to be planning a two-level music venue and partnering with the Oak View Group. OVG is behind the transformation of KeyArena into Climate Pledge Arena and owns the Seattle Kraken of the National Hockey League. Think of the possibilities!
Add in three, 40-story-plus apartment towers nearby in Denny Triangle – The Ayer (2010 Terry Avenue) and still-to-be-named twin towers from noted developers Concord Pacific (1901 Minor Avenue) – and you can see a major evolution in progress.
Unofficially, at least 4500 new apartment units in nine towers will be on the books for rent within the next couple of years – all within a few blocks of each other – and suddenly making Denny Triangle one of the most contemporary places to live in America and a chief competitor to Vancouver’s stunning skyline.