Construction financing is now in place for Brizo, an eight-story apartment building planned on 108th Avenue NE in downtown Bellevue. Spokane-based SRM Development borrowed $72.5 million for the project, which will add 239 apartments at 1051 108th Ave. NE. A King County deed of trust lists Bank OZK’s Dallas office as the lender.
All 239 units will rent at market rate. That sets Brizo apart from much of SRM’s work around Puget Sound, which leans toward affordable housing, including Altaire at East Main in Bellevue.
On Aug. 13, Bellevue issued the permit that lets SRM clear the site and build the tower. The property now holds Bellevue Vista Apartments, a 1977 complex of five low-rise buildings with 30 units, plus a surface parking lot.
A Larger Building Than First Approved
Brizo will fill a narrow 0.92-acre parcel with an assessed value of $13.9 million. Parking will go below ground on two levels, with room for roughly 200 cars.
The building has grown since it received design review approval in December 2024. At that point, plans called for 220 units and 174 parking spaces. The amenities in those plans included bike parking, a dog and bike wash area, a fitness center, a package and mail room, a club room and a rooftop deck. The tower has a two-story glass podium facing 108th Avenue NE and a dark penthouse level at the top.
Brizo will also extend a through-block pedestrian connection that runs south from NE 12th Street and links to walkways near the Belcarra and Ashton towers. Public art sculptures are planned where the path turns.
The Project Team
Runberg Architecture Group, a Seattle firm, designed Brizo. According to the firm’s project page, the design takes its cues from the wetlands and streams around Bellevue. The building’s exterior is meant to look like an image reflecting off the surface of a pond, and wooden overhangs above the rooftop amenity space are meant to suggest tree branches. Runberg’s page lists the project at 268,032 total square feet, with 153,354 square feet of residential space. It also lists a fitness center with a yoga studio and two rooftop decks and club rooms, one at the east corner of the building and one at the west.
Runberg names eight partner firms on the project:
- KPFF, a structural and civil engineering firm
- DCI Engineers, a structural engineering firm
- Hewitt, a Seattle architecture and landscape architecture firm
- Rushing, a mechanical, electrical, plumbing and sustainability engineering firm
- BEE Consulting, which designs, inspects and tests building envelopes for weatherization, energy efficiency and code compliance
- ArchEcology, a Seattle sustainability consultant
- A3 Acoustics, an acoustical consulting firm
- Endelman & Associates, a Seattle firm that consults on accessibility and the Americans with Disabilities Act
Site History
Alco Investment Company of Federal Way bought the property in 2020 for $12.8 million. In March 2023, SRM purchased the site for just over $14 million. The apartment project first went in for design review in 2021.
SRM’s Other Downtown Bellevue Projects
Brizo is one of several SRM projects in downtown Bellevue. A block west, SRM and Haseko North America are building Perle, a 230-unit project on the former Silver Cloud Hotel site at 10621 NE 12th Street, with an opening planned for late 2027. Public art along 106th Place NE at Perle will lead pedestrians to the Brizo through-block connection. SRM also has design approval for the six-story, 166-unit SRM Polynesia on 102nd Avenue NE. At 12 Bellevue Way SE, the company is aiming to start construction on a 376-unit project late in the fourth quarter of this year.
KidsQuest Is Moving
KidsQuest Children’s Museum sits on the opposite side of 108th Avenue NE from the Brizo site, at 1116 108th Ave. NE. The museum has served the Puget Sound region since 2005 and will eventually leave that building.
In October 2025, KidsQuest agreed to buy the Steven Holl-designed Bellevue Arts Museum building at 510 Bellevue Way NE for $5 million. Bellevue Arts Museum had closed to the public in September 2024 after years of financial trouble. In May, the Bellevue City Council approved $10 million toward renovating the 36,000-square-foot building, and BAM finalized the sale later that month. KidsQuest has started a $60 million capital campaign to bring the building up to code and create new exhibits that combine art and science.
This is not the museum’s first relocation plan. In January 2025, KidsQuest was partnering with SRM on a three-story, 40,000-square-foot museum inside a proposed affordable housing development at 995 118th Ave. SE.
The new location is on the Grand Connection near The Bellevue Collection. KidsQuest expects it to roughly double the museum’s space and draw more than 350,000 visitors a year. The museum plans to open there in mid-2029 and will stay on 108th Avenue NE until then.
