The neighborhood:   Denny Triangle/South Lake Union

The affected buildings: 2200 Condominiums located at Denny and Westlake and Enso Condominiums located on Blanchard and Westlake

The units with likely view obstructions:  At 2200 Westlake, the units facing west in the west tower will have their views of the downtown buildings within the Denny Triangle obstructed and a reduction in light. The west facing units of the south tower might also have view obstruction and light reduction. Upper floor units might also lose some westerly mountain and sound views.   At Enso Condominiums, the west facing units in the entire condo tower will likely be affected by reduced views to the west, as well as reduction in light.
Map of New Construction Buildings



The details:  Recently two new high-rise projects have started the plan review process with the city of Seattle’s DPD to construct 40 story apartment buildings.  According to the DJC and PSBJ articles this week, GID Development of Boston is proposing a tower with 430 units with some ground floor retail at 2101 Ninth Avenue, which is directly across the street to the west of the 2200 Condominium’s west tower.  GID already has another 41 story apartment tower under construction less than a block away at 8th and Lenora.

Additionally,  Clise Properties is proposing a 40 story tower that will have 450 units, also with ground floor retail,  at 2208 Eighth Avenue, which is directly behind Enso Condominiums on its west side.

Below on left is a rendering of Clise Properties’ proposed tower (courtesy Graphite Design Group). Below on right is a rendering of GID's proposed tower (courtesy of Weber Thompson).
Clise Properties Building Building behind 2200

The early design guidance meetings for both projects are scheduled at city hall for Thursday February 18th.  The GID project’s meeting is at 5:30pm followed by the Clise Properties’ project meeting at 8:30pm.

We all know that views are never really a guarantee in our downtown condo buildings, and with Amazon continuing to expand and other companies coming into South Lake Union and the Denny Triangle to join in on the growth, these new buildings are likely just the start of the new projects that might be coming to life over the next few years in these neighborhoods.

By Marco Kronen with Seattle Condo Review: A guide to Seattle downtown condos