Skanska plans apartment tower on Fourth Avenue in Belltown

Skanska is planning to build 346 apartments in Belltown after purchasing a large chunk of city block on the neighborhood.

The 19,440-square-foot parcel on Fourth Avenue sits mid-block between Bell and Blanchard Streets. It’s currently three separate one-story buildings—largely home to offices, although the middle building holds the Bad Animals recording studio.

Current plans for what the developer calls the 2200 Block call for multifamily above and retail at the ground floor.

Skanska is the developer behind 400 Fairview in South Lake Union, which features an indoor “market hall” surrounded by local vendors and restaurants (and occasionally a pop-up market), and Stone 34 in the Fremont and Wallingford area, which hosts the Brooks offices.. They’re also behind the 2+U tower currently under construction at Second Avenue and Union Street downtown.

Like those projects, said Skanska executive vice president Murphy McCullough in a statement, this one will “have a particular focus on the retail and ground-floor experience in this location.”

The 2200 Block project will be only their second residential project in the area, though—after Bellevue’s Alley 111—and their first in the city proper.

Skanska estimates that they’ll end up paying around $4.1 million toward affordable housing through Downtown’s recent mandatory housing affordability zoning changes. That program requires new developments either include affordable housing in their project or pay into an affordable housing fund.

The developer says they hope to work with the community on the tower’s design, and didn’t provide a project timeline.

• Downtown and SLU housing affordability rezones pass City Council [CS]