Community Planning and Development briefs Olympia on current housing, business projects 

At the Planning Commission meeting on Monday, Olympia's Community Planning and Development Deputy Director, Tim Smith, presented a report on the development activity in the city, where it processes 3,000 permits.

"It is important to know that in terms of permitting activity, the city processes about 6,000 a year…these are a wide variety of permitting," Smith told the commissioner. "We are halfway through the year and have just reached our 3,000 permits."

Smith showing the city's major projects.

In terms of housing, Smith said a total of 1,500 multifamily units – ranging from studios and one- to two-bedroom units, are in review. Of that number, 274 are subsidized low-income units, and 29 are downtown.

About 568 units are under construction. Of those, 90 are subsidized low-income, and 171 are downtown.

Sixty-six units were recently occupied or projects have been finished, and 60 are downtown.

About 481 are in the queue, with 373 single-family units and 108 townhouses.

The CP&D official cited 49 projects – 24 mixed-use/multifamily, 11 single-family/subdivisions, and 14 commercial/industrial/public-institutional projects.

Some examples are:

• Silver Leaf Phase 3 – Briggs Village on Yelm Highway with multifamily senior independent housing units. The construction is nearing completion.
• Madrone, at 114 Water Street NW. It has 60 multifamily units market rate with a ground floor for commercial of about 3,000-square-foot.
• Malt House at 515 Legion Way SE., with 57 units on four floors. It is currently under construction. It also has ground-floor commercial space and structured parking within the building itself.

Market Flats

• Market Flats at 312 Capitol Way. The building was destroyed by fire when it was partially completed in December 2021. It has been rebuilt. It is getting close to occupancies with 44 multifamily market-rate units with structured parking and commercial space on the ground floor.
• 401 Union Apartments on Union and Adams Street. The project is under construction and will have 70 multifamily units with two levels of structured parking.
• Water Street Apartments at 221 Fifth Avenue SW is under land use review. The project is a mixed-use building with 107 residential units with a ground-floor restaurant, lobby, and amenity space. Structured parking will be provided on levels one and two of the building. The former Heritage Bank will be demolished for this project.
• Water Street Condos on the corner of Water Street and 7th Ave. The project will have an 18-unit condominium with a ground-floor lobby and parking. The project is under land use and design review.

Family Support Center Housing

• Family Support Center of South Sound at 3524 Seventh Avenue. It is a low-income housing project with 62 affordable apartments. The proposal is the first phase in a two-phase development.
• Martin Way Affordable Housing Phase 2 at 2828 Martin Way. The proposal includes demolishing the existing building and constructing a 64-unit supportive housing building with five stories.
• Goat Apartments at 3303 Capital Mall Drive SW. The project is nearing completion. It will have 84 market-rate apartments.
• Franz Anderson Phase 1 and 2 – Phase 1 will comprise 71 affordable housing units. On the other side of the road, the city developed this for a tiny home village of about 50 units, which is a temporary use of the site.

Smith said the city anticipates selling this portion of the property to the same developer for the phase 2 Franz Anderson low-income project.

• Courtyard Hotel at 2301 Henderson Park Lane SE. It is now being developed as a four-story hotel adjacent to the Hilton Garden Hotel.
• Woodspring Suites Olympia at 3901 Martin Way East is a four-story building with a 122-room hotel. The project is under construction.
• Vic's Pizzeria at 2124 Pacific Avenue SE. The plan is to expand beyond their current location. They will reuse a former radio station and bank on the property into a restaurant with outdoor seating and eliminate the drive-through.
• Newhouse Replacement Building at 215 Sid Snyder Avenue SW. The project involves demolishing the existing building and constructing an over 59,000-square-foot four-story office building with a partial basement located on the west block.

Smith said there had been a high demand for senior housing and townhouses in the last few years. He told the commissioners that the impact fees for building such housing are slightly lower than others.

Smith also noted they are seeing a growing number of townhome development, particularly in compact and restricted areas where it is simpler to increase density and create additional housing units. He added that townhomes are more affordable.