Former Funeral Home Makes Way for Office Reuse

SEATTLE—Construction is underway at Fremont Crossing, a two building 55,000-square-foot commercial project. It is located along the Lake Washington Ship Canal at 316 S. Florentia St. in Seattle’s popular Fremont neighborhood. The adaptive reuse commercial office project is slated for completion in June 2020, according to Pastakia + Associates, a mixed-use urban infill development firm, in partnership with Pacifica Capital.

“At Pastakia + Associates we continue to focus on high-quality, well-located developments,” said Pastakia + Associates founder and principal, Tejal Pastakia. “We’re thrilled to begin our latest project representing the office side of that commitment that will help draw people and activity across the bridge to a newer part of Fremont.”

The development will feature 58,099 square feet of new indoor and outdoor commercial office space including 51,000 square feet of new construction and the 7,800-square-foot former Bleitz Funeral Home building.

Fremont Crossing is inspired by the Fremont’s maritime heritage along the Ship Canal. The project includes a new four-story space connected to the three-story historic landmark building. The original building will be repurposed with a special focus on design integrity so the building honors the original architectural character.

“At Fremont Crossing, we focused on balancing creativity and discipline: honoring the historic value of the existing building and blending it with the new modern neighborhood in which it dwells,” Tejal Pastakia, Pastakia + Associates founder and principal, tells GlobeSt.com. “We look forward to completing this project and welcoming new tenants to enhance the neighborhood further.”

The new building includes floor-to ceiling windows with views toward the Fremont Bridge, the north end of Lake Union and Gas Works Park, while partially wrapping around the back of the historical building. The buildings are also joined through a curved street-level courtyard providing space for outdoor dining and socializing, including a glazed prow enclosed in floor-to-ceiling glass designed to unify the new with the old.

Main project team members for the shell and core included Pastakia + Associates (developer), City National Bank (construction financing), Foushee (general contractor), SKB Architects (architect), DCI (civil engineering) and Colliers International (leasing and listing). Pacifica Capital Investments provided project financing.

Since 2010, Pastakia has developed more than 2,500 units and 500,000 square feet of office and retail space in the Puget Sound region including Seattle, Redmond, WA and Bellevue, WA.

Demand from tech giants continued to have a resounding impact on the region this period, with activity and expansion plans in the Seattle and Eastside submarkets being the strongest drivers. Of the 1.9 million square feet of Puget Sound net absorption so far this year, class-A properties had more than 1.7 million square feet or nearly 91% absorbed, according to a report by Colliers International.

Vacancy declined in reflection of the absorption and full-service rental rates continued to increase for all spaces as options became more limited. Seattle’s overall weighted average rate ended the quarter at $51.06 per square foot full service.

Apple signed the largest lease of the quarter and year so far, claiming the entire 333 Dexter development in Lake Union, where it will house an additional 2,000 new jobs. Amazon, which lists more than 10,000 regional job openings, continued to dominate headlines on the Eastside after leasing all 715,000 square feet of Trammell Crow’s proposed Binary Towers in the Bellevue CBD. Sales activity on the Eastside was strong in second quarter, highlighted by Preylock RE Holding’s acquisition of T-Mobile’s nearly 1 million-square-foot headquarters for $482 per square foot in the I-90 Corridor, says Colliers.