Reports the DJC on permit applications for new developments around the city:

Seattle’s Department of Planning and Development saw its revenues and permit intake value fall from 2007 to 2008, and Director Diane Sugimura said she is expecting this year to be even slower.

“The revenues and intake was probably as high as it was (in 2008) because we were seeing the second and third phases of projects that had been in for some time,” Sugimura said. “What we are not seeing is new projects.”

“2008 was clearly a drop but not, you know, off the cliff,” Sugimura said. “2009… we are concerned about that.”

But the anti-development crowd can hold their applause. Although applications for new developments have dropped off a cliff and the real-estate market is slower, for sure, I don’t think this means we’re going to see halt in neighborhood construction. Lots of projects—which submitted plans to the city in the last couple years—are still chugging through the design process. Fourteen large projects were scheduled for design reviews this month, and construction marches on around the city for four- to six-story apartment buildings. Meanwhile, developers for some of the more ambitious projects, such as office towers downtown, feel confident that they will begin construction before long. Kevin Daniels of Nitze-Stagen, for instance, believes his proposed 41-story tower on 5th Avenue and Colombia Street will proceed. “I’m looking at the end of 2012,” he said last week.

12 replies on “An Ice Age for Seattle Development?”

  2. Development, especially commercial, is highly cyclical so its not really that surprising that after a peak like we had we are heading for a trough .

  3. Hmmm….maybe with revenues down now would be a good time to change DPD’s funding from permit fees to the General Fund – that way DPD wouldn’t have a direct financial interest in approving permits they are supposed to be impartially reviewing.

    Hey, a fella can dream, right?

  4. I’m glad Nitze-Stagen didn’t get left holding the bag after paying big money to both acquire the 5th and Columbia property and NOT demolish the church building on 5th and Marion.

  5. Considering most of the original projects would have been hard to fill at the projected costs even with funny money loans, this is not that surprising.

    That said, you’re going to be seeing a lot taller buildings in general.

    Bet you wish they had greenspace surrounding them …

  6. The housing bubble was massive, the re-adjustment is going to very severe. I don’t know if you’ll be seeing any new luxury/highrise starts for a long time.

    Cheap condos and apts will always get built. Most of those old brick ones in Seattle were built during the depression.

  8. Will in Seattle @ 5) With all due respect, no. We don’t want towers with green space around them. It’s a bad idea now, it was a bad idea when you suggested it last year, and it was a bad idea when Le Corbusier ruined the Paris suburbs 60 years ago.

  11. I like the idea of high-rise, low-income housing. It worked well for those people on “Good Times” (For thos of you too young to remember, that was a 1970’s documentary series set in the Chicago housing projects)

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