This week Amazon had its second and what is likely final design review meeting for Block 18 located at 2205 7th Avenue in the Denny Triangle neighborhood. Amazon paid a total of $19.2 million to Clise Properties and related Clise family LLCs in December 2016 for the 38,880 square foot site. The site faces east toward Amazon’s future Block 21 Tower and is currently home to a former Days Inn motel.
Plans show that Block 18 will be a 17-story tower with about 388,000 square feet of office space. The main feature of the tower’s design is a central “treehouse stair” that appears to pull apart or hold together the facade.
There will be three street-level retail bays totaling at 8,800 square feet and five levels of below grade parking for 407 vehicles accessible via the alley. Block 18 also features a separate bike entrance on 7th Avenue and a large bike room with 125 stalls and locker rooms.
Amazon is currently under construction on Block 20 which is scheduled for completion in 2019. Once complete, they will begin Block 21 and Mary’s Place Family Shelter will move from the former Travelodge on 8th Avenue into the old Days Inn on Block 18’s site. Mary’s Place will receive a permanent home in Block 21 where Amazon is donating a 47,000 square foot purpose-built space. The facility will provide 24/7 shelter and services for more than 200 homeless women, children and families each night. The nonprofit is expected to move into its new space around 2021 and then Block 18 will begin.
Amazon’s Block 18 team includes Graphite Design Group, architect; Seneca Group, development manager; Coughlin Porter Lundeen, civil engineer; and Site Workshop, landscape architect. A general contractor has not been announced.