Skanksa to build Seattle’s 40-story Nexus condominium tower – Construction Dive

Dive Brief:

Skanska signed on with Burrard Development to build the 40-story Nexus residential tower in Seattle as part of a $152 million contract, according to the company.

Construction on the condominium high-rise began last month and is expected to be finished in 2019. A presale event last June drew long linesof people seeking to put their name in for a unit.

The 55,000-square-foot tower aims to catch eyes with its design, which will feature a series of stacked cubes, each offset by 8 degrees to accommodate terraces and angled views. It will include 382 units, below-grade parking and ground-floor retail.

Seattles downtown is abuzz with construction activity, with 51 buildings scheduled for completion in 2017, according to a recent report by the Downtown Seattle Association. Of the 27 buildings finished there last year, more than half (16) were residential. Overall, the city added 2,199 residential units in 2016 and is slated to more than double that figure in 2017, with 5,975 new units.

On the commercial end, high-profile projects include new offices for Google and moves by Facebook and Amazon to expand their footprints with additional leased space. The latter company accounted for more than two-thirds of the office space added to the citys core last year, according to the Seattle Times. The market there is so hot that, in February, Skanska announced that it would spend $392 million to develop and build a 38-story, Class A office building near the citys waterfront district complete with retail and public space.

Nexus is located in the Denny Triangle district, which is poised for its own residential construction boom, according to Curbed Seattle. The area is home to roughly 8,000 housing units currently, but 17 approved and 16 pending projects in the pipeline could boost that figure to 10,000.

Such growth,as swift and extensive as it has been,has raised concerns over density. The city is considering up-zoning proposals that would require developers to build more affordable housing a move that could be a boon for a market fraught by housing affordability concerns. A new 15-member Renters Commission advisory group, whose creation was approved last monthto give voice to the more than half of Seattle residents who rent, could also help to balance discussions around the impact of greater density downtown.

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Skanksa to build Seattle's 40-story Nexus condominium tower - Construction Dive