A rare new high-rise is rising in Seattle even as construction across the city has slowed sharply, according to FOX 13 Seattle. At the corner of 7th and Battery, a 45-story apartment tower called Sloane is taking the place of the old Elephant Car Wash, long known for its pink elephant sign. The Holland Partner Group broke ground on the tower in 2024, and more than 400 units are due to go up for lease next year.
The project comes amid strong demand for housing and rising rents in the city. According to those involved, one of the reasons rents keep climbing is a lack of supply, with very limited new housing coming online. Sloane stands out precisely because so little else is being built at the moment.
A look across the Seattle skyline reveals what is now missing: construction cranes. In 2017, cranes could be seen far and wide across the city as new towers went up. Today, they have all but vanished from the horizon, a visible sign of how much building has slowed.
Ray Connell, a managing director behind many notable apartment high-rises in Seattle and beyond, said the problem is not a lack of experience but a lack of investor interest. Investors, he said, are worried and uncertain about Seattle and are not opening their wallets the way they used to. They are, however, still willing to put money into projects on the east side.
According to Connell, Sloane was one of the last big apartment projects to break ground in the city, and over the last two years there has been almost no new activity in Seattle. He pointed to the high cost of building as a major factor, noting that pulling permits in Seattle is more expensive and that the energy code has become more stringent.
One of the main costs cited is the MHA fee, short for Mandatory Housing Affordability. To build most residential buildings, developers must either create affordable housing themselves or pay into a fund meant to support that goal. The fee can range from around 40,000 dollars for a small project to tens of millions of dollars for a large one.
Connell said the MHA fee is one of several reasons why many investors and developers have soured on Seattle. Developers have asked Mayor Katie Wilson to lower MHA fees by up to 80 percent. FOX 13 reached out to Wilson's office for her position on the issue but did not hear back in time for the broadcast.