05/17/2007 DPD Bulletin Highlights

Highlights from yesterday's DPD bulletin (sorry, no photos this week):

Lower Queen Anne: 100 Republican St
6 stories, 228 apartments, 147 live/work, 155 parking spaces.
Robert Burkheimer, the same guy that owns the shuttered QFC on Broadway, now has an early design guidance notice on the shuttered QFC in lower Queen Anne (just NW of the Seattle Center). He's asking for a height-limit raise, from 40' to 65' (is this starting to sound familiar yet?) and a possible subterranean alley vacation. (Not as intriguing as it sounds.) I'm going to speculate wildly here (honestly, this is speculation): The 147 live/work units are only because he's trying to avoid having to put in any retail at ground floor, and the less than 1:1 ratio of parking spaces to units guarantees that these will be apartment units, not condos. (If this gets built.) I like this a lot. Monthly Monorail passes are $40.

University District: 4501 12th Ave NE
8 stories, 222 hotel rooms over retail and restaurant, underground parking.
This is the vacant space that used to be a natural grocery store (just west is the newish office mid-rise that stood mostly vacant for some time). The architect's page only shows interiors of other projects, including Courtyard by Mariott Bellevue, Hilton Bellevue, Downtown (Seattle) Ramada, and Watertown Hotel. Nothing to speculate here.