Skanska to Begin 38-Story Seattle Office Tower

By Scott Baltic, Contributing Editor

2+U Tower in Seattle, rendering

Seattle—Skanska USA Commercial Development is set to start work on 2+U, a lifted, 38-story, 665,000-square-foot office tower in Seattle’s urban core. The $392 million building is named for its location, at Second Avenue and University Street, near the Seattle Art Museum, Pike Place Market, Benaroya Hall (the home of the Seattle Symphony and also built by Skanska) and the downtown transit tunnel.

The tower’s office space will be lifted to 85 feet, accommodating an all-seasons, 24,000-square-foot “outdoor urban village” that includes arts and entertainment spaces, restaurants and retail, all open to the public. This part of the project was made possible by an alley vacation from the City of Seattle.

The 1.01-acre site is subject to a 75-year ground lease from the Samis Foundation, a Seattle-based non-profit that supports Jewish education in the city.

The project, targeting LEED Gold certification, was first announced in November 2014 and will take till the second quarter of 2019 to complete. Amenities include:

• 18,000- to 30,000-square-foot floorplates;
• Unobstructed views of Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains;
• A 19th-floor outdoor tenant view deck;
• A bike club featuring secure bike storage and maintenance and electric charging facilities; and
• A fitness and wellness studio, including sauna, showers and locker facilities.

2+U Tower in Seattle, rendering

Prospective tenants will be able to take a guided holographic tour of 2+U using Microsoft’s HoloLens mixed-reality headset.

The architect of record is Kendall Heaton Associates of Houston, and the design architect is Pickard Chilton of New Haven, Conn.

Skanska declined to provide additional information requested by Commercial Property Executive.

The building will be Skanska’s fourth project in the Seattle area.

Four Hundred Fairview, the company’s first Seattle-area asset, is a 14-story Class A office building in South Lake Union. The building serves as headquarters to Tommy Bahama, Impinj and Delta Dental of Washington and also features an open-style retail market hall. The Delta Dental lease, announced just days ago, was the final commercial lease at the building.

Alley 111 is a 260-unit multifamily building with 6,000 square feet of retail space, in Bellevue.

And Stone 34, the global headquarters for Brooks Sports, met the requirements of Seattle’s Deep Green Pilot Program, making it one of that city’s greenest buildings. Skanska sold the property to a joint venture of Unico Properties and Laird Norton Co. for $70 million in December 2014.

Renderings courtesy of Skanska