City of Olympia development roundup

Olympia home-development market as strong as before the 2008 recession

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The Olympia Planning Committee has seen an uptick in applications to build housing in the city after a slow recovery from the 2008 recession.

Community Planning and Development director Leonard Bauer said they see high demand for housing – something they did not see in the early 2000s - based on the many pre-applications, which will then go through the process and under construction.

“In the last two to three years, it picked up significantly and a slight uptick in the first quarter of this year compared to the last two years in terms of total numbers and the value of the project. There are more complex and larger projects as well,” Bauer said during the discussion of private development at the Planning Commission meeting held Monday.

This year,s the number of development applications in Olympia is as strong as that of the 2000s, before the recession in 2008, he added. 

For Q1 2022, there are 57 applications either in the pre-application stage, under land-use and design review, civil engineering and building permit application review, or under construction. Twenty-seven of these projects are multi-family residential or apartment units or mixed-use commercial spaces for retail stores or restaurants. In total, these projects total approximately 2,000 multi-family residential and apartment units.

 In terms of quantity, the biggest projects under mixed-use/multi-family residential are West Bay Yards at 1210 West Bay Drive NW with planned 478 multi-family residential units and ground floor commercial; and Smyth Landing Senior Living Apartments at 1824 West Bay Drive with 431 residential units for seniors with various income levels in five buildings. Both are under review.

Fifteen subdivisions developments are in the pre-application process or scheduled for a public hearing for approval. They are projected to include 593 residential units.

There are also 15 commercial and public institutional projects. Among these are two hotels.

Woodspring Suites Olympia, at 3901 Martin Way East, would have 122 rooms in a four-story building. The civil engineering application was approved. The land use approval was issued on Sept. 20, 2021. Its building permit application is under review. The construction is expected to start this year, according to Bauer. 

Courtyard Hotel, at 2301 Henderson Park Lane, is currently under construction. It is located adjacent to Hilton Garden Hotel just southwest of Interstate 5 Exit 105.

Also under construction is Interfaith Works Shelter and Day Center, located at 3444 Martin Way. This shelter will serve people experiencing homelessness.

“It's redeveloping an old commercial site into a 24/7 shelter for 38 people and eventually converted to a daytime service center and long-term permanent supportive housing on that site,” Bauer said, adding the project is nearing completion.

Family Support Center has another housing project in development. It is currently under land use review, engineering and building permit review. Once constructed, Bauer said, the four-story building will provide 62 affordable apartments for families in need in Olympia. The Family Support Center housing is the second project approved under Olympia Home Fund and other state funding sources. The first was Interfaith Works’ Unity Commons building.

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