More than forty percent of Via6’s 654 apartments have already been rented, crows a press release about the newly opened, GGLO-designed Pine Street Group property. Located at 2121 Sixth Avenue, between Lenora and Blanchard, Via6 is actually two 18-story apartment towers — soon to fill, you imagine, with Amazon employees envisioning a few blocks’ stroll to and from work. Or, rainy days, nipping over to Westlake for the South Lake Union streetcar.
What’s fascinating about a development like Via6 is the ways in which it’s like a honey trap for a particular psychographic profile. The majority of its apartments are one-bedroom configurations, with only 15 percent being two-bedroom units, 13 percent, studios. But Via6 amenities are condominium-quality: 9-foot ceilings, cork and wood floors, balconies, walk-in closets. There’s a gaming center, a movie theater, a fitness center, dog-owner amenities (on-site “relief” areas and DIY dog-washing facilities), and a fire pit.
This will set you back. Urbnlivn already checked on the price points: Studios start at $1,175 (up to $2,120), a standard 1-bdrm begins at $1,600 (up to $3,500), and a 2-bdrm starts at $2,050 (up to $3,735). Per capita income in King County in 2009 was $58,000 and you’d better be making something like that before you move into your new one bedroom.
But perhaps Via6 lets you save money in other ways. Maybe not at the Tom Douglas restaurant, coffee shop, and urban market, but, suggests project manager Matt Rosauer, “If people want to try life without a car, this could be their spot.” (Here, Consumer Reports reminds you that, over the first five years, the median cost of ownership of a car is $9,100 per year — that’s “depreciation, fuel, interest on financing, insurance, sales tax, and average maintenance and repair costs.”)
Going car-less doesn’t mean staying home. Via6 is nearby the Westlake transit hub that includes the streetcar, buses, and light rail. The bike shop Velo (formerly of Capitol Hill) has taken up residence on the ground floor. (Non-residents might be more interested in joining ViaBike, a membership-based club that offers commuter cyclists showers and lockers.) There’s a car-sharing program planned (not quite finalized as of today), as well as a car rental partnership with a nearby agency.
Via6 is is the process of applying for LEED Gold certification, much of which applies to efficiencies residents won’t see, but some of which they will. For instance, air conditioning in the units is on-demand, rather than default. Overhead ceiling fans are a less-energy-intensive way of cooling off. In the bathroom, residents will find a tub-based clothesline for drying the non-electric way, if they’d like.
The most energy-conscious thing residents are likely to do, though, is live as a “vertical community.” It’s that density that allows efficiencies to flourish. But it allows other things to flourish, too. Earlier, I discussed Amazon as “representative of a new Seattle voting bloc — well-educated, well-paid, bike-toting urbanites who have a thing for rail.” If old Seattle was built by Boeing workers who raised their kids in suburban homes, you get sense of how different new Seattle will be, with single apartment dwellers and their dogs as the basic household unit.
