By Kathy Mulady
Reporting for West Seattle Blog

Any West Seattle resident who commutes past the baseball and football stadiums probably keeps track of home-game schedules to avoid sitting in the thick of a traffic jam.

So what’s the traffic going to be like when Nitze-Stagen adds nearly 1,000 apartments, condominiums and row houses, offices and shops on the north half of the parking lot at Qwest Field?

Where are you going to park when you go to a game?

And what happens to the tailgate parties?

No worries, according to Kevin Daniels, president of Nitze-Stagen, the company developing the project. (Daniels invited WSB to his office recently for a preview of how the project is progressing.)

The new neighborhood will be the most heavily transit-oriented development in King County, with easy access to buses, light-rail, trains, and maybe eventually a streetcar line.

The King County Water Taxi to West Seattle is blocks away.

The idea is that people who live and work in the new buildings won’t have to own cars. Garage parking will replace the 500 parking spaces now on the flat parking lot.

Half of the existing parking lot, right in front of the football stadium, will still be there, just as it is.

But only half a space per apartment or condo is being provided for residents. Some worry that few spaces will push even more people to park on the streets.

“The transit aspect is critical; take that away and it is just another development,” said Daniels. “We need to make all the parts work together.”

The $270 million project will include more than 100 apartments that are supposed to be affordable to lower-income renters.

King County Councilmembers approved selling the north half of the parking lot for $10 million two years ago. Pioneer Square leaders hope the addition of more market-rate housing, offices and stores will balance the low-income housing and bars that make up much of the historic neighborhood now. The development doubles the amount of housing available in the Pioneer Square neighborhood.

Daniels wants to get going on the project, which has been years in the planning, as soon as the economy starts to turn around. He expects most of the permits will be issued within a couple of months.

They are positioning the project to be first to respond to the market demand. West Seattle commuters could soon see buildings rising alongside Qwest Field as they head downtown.

Daniels also says the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement work will have no effect on his plan, whether the tunnel does or doesn’t get built.

Kevin Cornell, vice president at Nitze-Stagen, said they have worked closely with the nearby communities to create building shapes with a human scale to people walking on wide sidewalks, but are then stepped back as they stretch skyward.

Final architectural designs for the project haven’t been finished yet, but Cornell has “massing” models, showing the basic shapes and positions of the buildings:

He said careful consideration has been given to placement of the towers to preserve water and mountain views, and give consideration to nearby landmarks. “We have spectacular views,” said Cornell.

But, he adds that between the city, the neighborhoods and sports fans, “We have had lots of masters to accommodate.”

The project is also expected to be one of the greenest in environmentally-conscious Seattle. Besides bringing more housing close to the city’s core, and getting people out of their cars for short or long-distance travel, the project will include rooftop gardens, adding an acre of open space, according to plans.

Here are some details on the stadium parking lot project (information provided by Nyhus Communications):

394 condos and row houses

562 apartments (140 of those units described as affordable for renters earning $35,000 a year.)

1,035 parking stalls, including 500 spaces to replace public parking now on the site.

25,000 square feet of street-level retail, including a grocery store.

Nitze-Stagen is perhaps best known for bringing worn-out and threatened buildings back to useful life. Here are some you might know:

UNION STATION

Built in 1911, vacated in 1971, renovated for Sound Transit in 1997

SEARS BUILDING (STARBUCKS WORLD HEADQUARTERS)

Built in 1912, expanded in 1914, 1945, 1956, 1965 and 1974. Bought by Nitze-Stagen in 1990.

FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH

The low-lying 100-year-old church with the terra-cotta-domed sanctuary was headed for demolition when Nitze-Stagen stepped in. The sanctuary will be saved and mated with a 40-story office tower on the site.