If commuting was part of your pre-pandemic routine, then you will recall the sometimes-endless delays on freeways and other chokepoints across an aging road system ill-equipped to handle the 23% population rise in Seattle this past decade.
After a 2020 respite to hibernate at home, our commuter wars are ramping up again and there is no sign of improving travel times – unless the rat race involves light rail service. SoundTransit is on the verge of opening three Link stations as part of a 4.3-mile extension north of the University of Washington (UW) station.
The new UDistrict, Roosevelt and Northgate stations will open Oct. 2. This is welcome news for workers planning their return to offices and for the many students expected to converge on campuses from North Seattle Community College in Northgate, UW and Seattle Central College on Capitol Hill.
The $1.9B, mostly tunneled extension is expected to add 45,000 daily passengers. A trip from the northern-most point (for now) at Northgate Station to downtown’s Westlake Station will take only 14 minutes, according to SoundTransit. Wow, who needs I-5?!
And that’s the point. People can still work in downtown Seattle or South Lake Union while enjoying their non-office life further afield. The Northgate area is especially attractive, as the Kraken’s hockey-practice facility is opening amid plans for new entertainment and dining options that will join established stores Nordstrom Rack and Bed, Bath and Beyond at the former Northgate Mall and Target just up the road.
A glimpse at this map shows a handful of the largest condo buildings within walking distance of the three new stations. Three of the biggest Northgate condos – Northgate Plaza (84 units at 9416 1st Ave. NE), Northgate Villa (138 units at 10501 8th Ave. NE) and Northgate West (72 units at 11300 1st Ave. NE) – each offer an outdoor pool as part of their amenity package.
Roosevelt Station, at 12th Ave. NE and NE 65th St. (just east of Roosevelt Way NE), is an area more likely to attract residents of single-family homes and smaller apartments. The area’s one significant condo is Dwell Roosevelt (1026 NE 65th St.), a six-story, three-building, 78-unit community opened in 2006.
The addition of the UDistrict station, at Brooklyn Avenue NE between NE 43rd and NE 45th streets (a block west of University Way NE), will arguably turn a rough patch of retail and mid-century apartment buildings into a hotbed for developers seeking to take advantage of the UW campus a few blocks to the East.
Three of the largest condo buildings in the UDistrict are clustered around 8th Ave. NE and NE 45th St. They include Duncan Place, a six-story, 63-unit structure at 4547 8th Ave. NE; University Plaza, a 23-story, 136-unit condo with outdoor pool at 4540 8th Ave. NE, just west of Trader Joe’s; and La Terrazza, a 54-unit condo conversion at 4343 Roosevelt Way NE.
[The UDistrict will always be dominated by apartments geared toward the massive UW student population. The most recent rental achievement, The M Seattle, at 4700 Brooklyn Ave. NE, tops 24 stories and includes 227 units, with great amenities like a roof-top study lounge. There are tentative plans for approximately 3000 additional apartment units in the coming years within a few short blocks of the rail station; they include a seven-story, 180-unit building at the site of a former UDistrict Safeway; a 23-story, 220-unit tower at the old Hardwick’s Hardware location; and, a pair of 24-story, high-rises – tentatively to be named OneU and OneX – with about 700 units on or near the departing Mazda dealership on Roosevelt Way NE.]
Not ready to buy today or unwilling to move to this area of the city? No problem. The fall opening of three stations also kicks off a three-year period of major updates, nearly tripling the region’s light-rail network to 62 miles by 2024. Routes will extend from the current Angle Lake south terminus to Federal Way, and across I-90 toward Bellevue, Overlake and Redmond.
Despite some financial shortfalls – thanks in part to the reduced usage in 2020 – the SoundTransit board voted in August to finish the NE 103rd Street light-rail station in Seattle by 2025. Work, however, will be delayed on rail extensions to Ballard (tentatively set for 2036 completion) and downtown Everett (in 2041).
Construction of the Lynnwood light-rail station is about 50% complete, according to SoundTransit. The 8.5-mile extension from Northgate will bring light rail to Shoreline and into Snohomish County – one station in Mountlake Terrace and one in Lynnwood. Heading south from Lynnwood, riders will be able to get to downtown Seattle in 28 minutes. Service from Lynnwood is scheduled to start in 2024.
The $6.5B plan to extend light-rail routes – known locally as ST3 – won voter approval in 2016 but almost immediately faced an affordability gap as land-acquisition and construction costs pushed the budget higher. The shortfall contributed to a need to delay some projects.
Light-rail ridership rose along with the city’s population, and by 2019 Link carried some 80,000 riders daily – numbers that have slipped considerably as businesses paused on-site operations during the pandemic.
More information on SoundTransit’s Link light-rail expansion plans can be found here. My previous blog post on the topic from 2019 is here. And contact me with your residential real estate questions in and around the light-rail routes.