Originally published: bizjournals.com

Story Highlights

• Timberlane Partners plans 133-apartment project in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood.
• Project set to break ground in 2027, completion expected 2028.
• Century-old rental properties totaling 14 units will be demolished.

The number of homes on a mid-block property in Fremont will increase more than ninefold under the plan a Seattle developer announced Wednesday.

Timberlane Partners has a contract to buy a trio of century-old rental properties on the 3600 block of Woodland Park Avenue North, said PJ Santos, the company’s senior managing development director. A seven-story project with 133 apartments and underground parking is planned.

Hewitt is the designer and Venture is doing the pre-construction work.

With interest rates still high and the region losing jobs, it’s a peculiar time to announce a project. Some are, however, hoping to fill the void left by the steep decline in the production of housing.

“We’re feeling good the world will get better in 24 months” when the project is scheduled to be under construction.

The zoning is in place, and the project is set to break ground in early 2027 with move-ins starting by late 2028, said Santos, who declined to comment on how the development will be financed.

Since its 2011 founding, Timberlane has acquired and built over $1 billion worth of assets in West Coast and Mountain West markets. Timberlane delivers returns to high-net individuals, family offices and RIA (registered investment adviser) firms primarily through value-add projects but also with new-construction commercial and hospitality projects.

Among the new construction projects is the 162-unit Sumner Mill, where rents start at $2,195 for a one-bedroom, 821-square-foot home. Two-bedroom, two-baths start at $2,619 a month for 1,023 square feet, according to the website of the property, which adds it’s offering $1,000 off the first month’s rent on two bed/two bath units and $500 off all other homes.

Timberlane colleagues working with Santos on the Fremont project are Jorden Mellergaard and Finnegan Syrie.

Sam Karpp, a University of Washington law student and resident of one of the to-be-demolished century-old buildings, said he’s not shocked he’ll be losing his home of around seven years. Residential buildings have been sprouting in the trendy neighborhood on the north end of Lake Union for over a decade and construction continues.

“Part of me is surprised it’s taken this long,” he said Wednesday as he studied on the sunny stoop of the Steiner, at 3632 Woodland Park Ave. N. Together, the old buildings have 14 homes whose residents Karpp said are a community that will be missed.

The two lots to the south also are part of the assemblage near the recently expanded headquarters of Brooks Running.

Fremont did sustain a blow earlier this year when Google confirmed it’s leaving its nearly 300,000 square feet of space in the neighborhood. The company is consolidating operations at the south end of Lake Union where it has nearly 1 million square feet of space.