Capitol Hill’s next new development to finally dig in appears to be ready on E Olive Way

(Image: MG2)

Designs for the project started through the public process four years ago (Image: MG2)

Capitol Hill’s first new large-scale mixed-use development in a very long time is ready to open to new residents and street-level businesses along E Madison.

Developers are getting ready to dig on on another.

The City of Seattle issued a Master Use Permit last month as a long-planned Capitol Hill development is finally fully moving forward on E Olive Way. It will replace a set of mostly empty office and commercial buildings midway on the street’s winding curves below Broadway.

CHS last reported on the project four years ago as it languished in the challenging mix of high interest rates, inflation and construction costs, and flagging rents emerging from the pandemic. The plan reaches back seven years to a massive 2019 land deal with Vancouver, Canada-based real estate investment and management company Low Tide Properties paying $21 million for the collection of commercial buildings including the former Fred Wildlife events space.

The project has grown in scope in hand with changing land use policies. It is is now envisioned as an 8-story, 173-unit apartment building with street level commercial spaces and underground parking for 94 vehicles.

(Image: MG2)

The design review process inched forward following the pandemic and was not completed until an administrative nudge from the Hearing Examiner this winter under the city’s new rules streamlining the review process.

The same Canadian investors remain in place with a concept by Seattle-based global architecture and retail designer MG2.

As it pursues a new development involving two 35-story apartment towers up in Vancouver, Low Tide has also been cashing in mature assets, including a recent sale of multifamily apartment buildings in East Vancouver. The company continues to expand its identity under “The Low Tide Experience,” managing higher-end, boutique-style multifamily residential properties, including key locations in the Seattle metro area such as Lux in Bellevue and Vela in Kirkland.

(Image: MG2)

Due to the long timelines in development of the property, it is a little tricky to sort out which permits have actually been issued for the 1661 E Olive Way project in Seattle but it appears paperwork is in place for demolition of the old commercial buildings and construction of the new development to begin soon.

Meanwhile, other E Olive Way projects remain on ice including the plans for a new eight-story mixed use project lined up someday for the All Season Cleaners property just below Broadway and a seven-story development on the parcels where the old Olive Way Improvement Company was demolished “under emergency conditions” to start 2025.

Whether the thawing of 1661 E Olive Way will be a sign of a new wave of development activity across the Hill or a one-off while the industry waits for better conditions will remain to be seen.

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