'Deep green' Wallingford building set to break ground

The Seattle Times, 2012-11-30

By Eric Pryne, The Seattle Times

Nov. 30--Developer Skanska USA and the Wallingford Community Council have settled their fight over Skanska's controversial "deep green" Stone 34 office building, and the project is expected to break ground within a month.

The council and developer announced the settlement Friday. Skanska will provide the Wallingford group with cash and in-kind help for a project to improve neighborhood access to the Lake Union waterfront, community council President Lee Raaen said.

In return, the council is dropping its appeal of city permits for the five-story, $51 million project.

Raaen wouldn't reveal the settlement amount.

Stone 34, at the foot of Stone Way North, is an unusual project with a stormy history.

Skanska plans to incorporate features making it probably the second-greenest commercial building in Seattle. But for the project to pencil out financially, the developer said, the building needed to be 20 feet taller than the 45 feet zoning allows.

The community council and some neighbors argued the building would be out of scale with the neighborhood. But this summer the city council amended an existing incentive program encouraging "deep green" buildings to allow Skanska the additional height.

Stone 34 will be the headquarters of running-shoe and -apparel maker Brooks Sports, which is moving from Bothell.

Skanska, an arm of a multinational construction company based in Sweden, said it is self-financing the 129,000-square-foot project, which is scheduled for completion in mid-2014.

Eric Pryne: epryne@seattletimes.com or 206-464-2231

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