At Bisnow’s recent Seattle Construction & Development Summit, Mortenson Construction VP Jim Yowan said that in the current development climate, it’s critical for contractors to have solid, established relationships with their subcontractors, because skilled labor is in short supply with the boom in multifamily development. (Hammering is an art form.) The situation might get worse if multifamily growth doesn’t slack off as other kinds of commercial development pick up—which it's starting to do.
Though the city of Seattle is now growing faster than suburban King County, AvalonBay SVP Brian Fritz says not to count the suburbs out for residential development. Gen Ys aren’t the only people in the market for housing, and families still tend to prefer suburbs. He stresses that his company has a long outlook in residential development, trying to design properties to be appealing years in the future. “We ask ourselves what’s going to stay fresh, what can be adapted later?”
Vulcan Real Estate residential development manager Brandon Morgan agrees that not everyone in Seattle’s residential market are youngish tech workers. (Despite the Internet's claims otherwise, there are still people over 35 years of age.) Some of Vulcan’s projects have successfully targeted older renters by offering a little more luxury and a little more space. Brandon also discussed the difficulties Seattle’s had in encouraging affordable housing in the city. Incentive zoning, he says, has resulted in only about 600 units of new affordable housing so far.
Relay senior partner David Mills says that despite the fact there’s demand for condos, developers still tend to shy away from them—for now. While developers will eventually build to meet demand, the question is when and where. In the rental market, people consistently want to be near restaurants and retail, and at some point, they’re going to want to own their own homes at those locations. It’ll be a bit a slog, though. Multifamily construction time is up 25% from two years ago, from permitting and construction, David points out. Cairncross & Hempelmann star attorney Nancy Rogers moderated the event, which attracted about 350 real estate pros to the Four Seasons Seattle. (More on Nancy in our next edition.)
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