(All photos by WSB’s Patrick Sand unless otherwise credited)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

You can see downtown from the roof of Harbor Properties‘ under-construction Link – and when it’s done, from the same spot, you’ll also see a stretch of green.

No, not more of that green wrap: A rooftop garden (and sizable deck) will be atop the 195-apartment, plus ground-floor commercial, building along 38th SW north of SW Alaska (map) in The Triangle. Construction is about two-thirds done – it started in late November last year, and the building is scheduled for residents to start arriving in late March of next year.

After the project marked a milestone recently with the departure of its big crane, we requested a hard-hat tour, and Harbor obliged, with Steve Yoon and Emi McKittrick as our guides:

Starting at ground level, we could see the commercial part of the Link building taking shape.

That’s the spot along the alley (east side of Link) where a day-care provider plans to take a sizable space, about 12,500 square feet – and its operation will include an outdoor play area. The rest of the commercial space? For one, vegetarian restaurant Chaco Canyon Café is close to a deal, says McKittrick (you might recall the much-commented-on WSB story six months ago, asking you about potential interest).

(This photo courtesy Harbor Properties)
If the deal’s finalized, it would continue Harbor’s tradition of a restaurant in its West Seattle buildings – Mural (WSB sponsor), across from Jefferson Square, of course has the acclaimed Fresh Bistro on the ground floor. Link’s third retail space has a potential tenant, McKittrick says, but not close enough to discuss who, or even what kind of business it might be.

A different kind of deal is in the bag for the entire building, however: An art partner. Art throughout Link will be handled by The Junction’s own Twilight Artist Collective.

On Link’s outside, you’ll see special touches as well – five units north of the main entrance will have doors off the sidewalk along 38th SW, down a few steps from street level.

Back inside, the lobby will have an indoor water feature – a first for Harbor projects like this, according to McKittrick – and a screen displaying the status of approaching Metro buses, so that people can stay cozy in the lobby before rushing out to catch the bus (Link’s south side along SW Alaska is along Metro’s future RapidRide C Line). But Link also has some accommodation for car users, with an underground parking garage:

The ratio of on-site parking spaces to units is less than 1:1, because of the transit proximity; McKittrick notes that they will offer incentives to those who move in and live there without cars. She also points out that about 20 percent of the apartments will have rents qualifying for Homes Within Reach (a deal with the city that in turn gives participating developers certain tax exemptions).

You may have noticed that the dust screening has come off more of the building in recent days, revealing something that Harbor learned from Mural, McKittrick notes: People seem to like more colorful exteriors, rather than one-color buildings. Even on the alley-facing east side, they’ve stained the exterior concrete:

As for the interior – we’ll check back when that takes shape in a few more months – they’re expected to start pre-leasing toward the end of the year. Link will have a mix of studios, 1-bedroom and 2-bedroom apartments; (McKittrick acknowledges that some ask, why no 3-bedrooms – she says there is not much market demand, or else developers would be happy to build them – though of course this is one of the comparatively few projects anywhere in the city under way now, as noted when its financing finalization was announced a year ago.) General contractor for Link, by the way, is Exxel Pacific, same as Mural.

We’ll be checking in again as Link gets closer to completion. Meantime, you can find out more via its website here.