Developer John Su has moved forward with his new 6-story 80-unit project called Soma, located at 10701 Main Street, and is expected to open the project this spring.
Soma promises to have a “Little footprint. Big impact” – which refers to the building’s green efforts. The website for the project promotes that this is Bellevue’s first geo-thermal apartment. Although it’s not complete, the building looks as if it will primarily have a concrete and glass exterior.
For the past 2 years, development has all but come to a stop in the residential market. Soma is the first sign of life that developers are starting to bet on for Downtown Bellevue to again to be a hotbed for potential residents.
Downtown bellevue is in excess of apts and condos… look at Bravern and Bellevue Towers and the list of apartment buildings in the vicinity. Rather than housing, downtown bellevue needs more businesses….
I think the main problem with The Bravern is the location right on 8th. Access isn’t very good and their rep for being snobby hurts them as well.
Bellevue just has to many condo’s/apts. built by developers who thought they could get premium prices. I think they aimed too high.
for the longest time i thought it was going to be office buildings.. oops hahah
Looks like the same people who built the Elements complex (where I currently live) and you can definitely see similarities.
I question the comments on “excess” apartments. Last year the DT market absorbed a record number of units and the majority of large projects are now stabilized and operating. The timing for Soma seems excellent given the market tightening and the project size.
There is a big difference between Apartments & Condos in downtown Bellevue. Although there are a lot of Apartments, they are leasing on a very healthy rate.
Soma has not announced pricing yet, but assuming that the rent isn’t priced astronomically high, I think they will do well at their location. It is very close to the downtown core, and the transit center.
TP is right, what we need are some apartments that are NOT premium. I know it doesn’t really cost them much more to make luxury vs standard but there are large numbers of people that want to live close to DT but don’t need granite etc and are forced to commute in from far away.