Rainier Beach Neighborhood Overview
I have been blogging about our Van Gogh Development Corporation artist live/work project all week. This project is located at 4354 S. Henderson Street in the Rainier Beach neighborhood of south Seattle.
The subject property is located in the Rainier Valley market area as described in the Apartment Vacancy Report by Dupre+Scott. This area is generally defined by I-90 on the north, Rainier Ave., MLK Way, and Beacon Ave. S. on the west, S. 112th St. on the south, and Lake Washington to the east.
The neighborhood extends approximately six miles southeast of downtown Seattle to Renton. Rainier Valley is situated east of Beacon Hill and refers to the entire length of the valley including the sub communities of Columbia City, Rainier Beach, Mt. Baker, Dunlap, and Holly Park.
With the coming of World War II, housing was in short supply and the U.S. Government created thousands of low-cost temporary housing units at Rainier Vista and Holly Park to accommodate the tens of thousands of war workers coming to Seattle to work at Boeing or in the shipyards.
Since then, the area has weathered a number of economic cycles since its founding. Over the past several decades, the general market area has been economically depressed, stigmatized as a low income, blighted area.
This reputation is now being shed and the area has attracted a number of housing projects. Substantial internal pressure from the community stymied the infusion of low-income housing to this area, and more recent development has been more market driven. In the last ten years, the expanding economy and demand for urban housing has fueled renewed interest in the area.
The excellent location and proximity to major employment centers in downtown and the South Seattle industrial district have begun attracting residents in search of affordable housing in the South Seattle vicinity.
Sound Transit’s light rail line (LINK) runs through the center of this market area with the Rainier Beach Station just 1/2 block west of the subject property. The 15.6 mile Central LINK Line began operation in 2009 with service north to the Seattle CBD and south to the regional SeaTac airport. In 2016, the line will be extended north of the Seattle CBD with stops at Capitol Hill and the University of Washington.
The Rainier Valley floor is framed by the slopes of Beacon Hill to the West and the hillside neighborhoods of Mount Baker as well as Lake Washington to the east. The subject is located in the southern end of this market.
Along the north end of the valley is the Cheasty Greenbelt, a system of parks. The southern portion of the Valley has Martha Washington Park, Van Asselt Playground, Othello Playground, Seward Park, and Kubota Gardens.
The valley floor consists of a wide mix of building and land uses. Asian mini-malls have been successful including King’s Plaza on MLK Way nearby. Within one mile of the subject there is one major grocery complex, a Safeway located on Rainier Ave. S. about one half mile east of the subject.
The greatest change to this neighborhood is occurring along MLK Jr. Way. Following the route of Sound Transit, new residential construction has proliferated. Examples include Othello Place, a market rate townhouse condominium development facing on MLK Jr. Way at its intersection with S. Bozeman St.
North of this project is NewHolly. The latest phase, Othello Place at NewHolly, is adjacent to Sound Transit’s Othello Station. These are examples of the housing that is being developed in this neighborhood replacing housing that was built during the first decades of the 20th century as a working class neighborhoods dominated by single-family homes.
Much of the original housing still exists away from the MLK Jr. Way frontage. These include the craftsman and bungalow homes of both the Rainier Valley neighborhood and the Beacon Hill neighborhood to the west.
Sound Transit finished constructing four transit stations in Rainier Valley. The northern most is the Mount Baker Station at the intersections of Rainier Ave. S. and MLK Jr. Way (adjacent to the subject). South of this is the Edmunds (Columbia City) Station about one mile south of the subject. South of these are the Othello Station at the intersections of Othello St. and MLK Jr. Way and the Rainier Beach Station at S. Henderson St. and MLK Jr. Way. These stops on the 4.8-mile light rail section through the Rainier Valley connect downtown Seattle and SeaTac International Airport. The Central LINK Line began operation in July 2009.
The subject’s immediate neighborhood has yet to gentrify. Most of the rental housing stock in this area was built during or before the early 1970’s. Since 1986, no new market rate units in complexes of 20 units or larger have been added to this area. However, a number of affordable housing and mixed-income projects have been completed or are proposed including three large tax credit redevelopment projects, Rainier Court, Rainier Vista and NewHolly. These redevelopments will add to the gentrification of the immediate neighborhood and the entire Rainier Valley market.
Until recently, the Rainier Valley market was largely ignored by development, partly due to the lack of high density sites and the difficulty of assembling sites in this mostly single family residential area but also due to lack of market interest in this area. Instead most new development has occurred in neighborhoods surrounding the Seattle CBD, such as the International District and the Central and First Hill neighborhoods or in Renton south of the subject site. Sound Transit and projects such as Rainier Vista and NewHolly have changed this and new interest in this market is following the Sound Transit route.
The subject’s location and desirability is expected to increase greatly over the next few years with the completion of the light rail stations, new neighborhood developments, and with the continued revitalization of areas such as the Columbia City neighborhood’s historic downtown area. As indicated by the recent and current development activity in the market, there continues to be a gentrification in the subject’s market area. The current activity in the market area is the result of inadequate urban housing and developable land supply in and around Seattle.
For more information about this project, please contact me at wendy@vangoghdev.com
Happy investing!
