Prefab Apartments Slated For Seattle

A local commercial property developer has built two prototype units and announced plans to erect a 62 unit complex -- claiming the factory built units will cost 15 percent less then traditional housing.

1 minute read

May 27, 2008, 9:00 AM PDT

By Christian Madera @http://www.twitter.com/cpmadera

"Developer Unico Properties' answer to affordable housing sits unobtrusively in a quiet plaza in increasingly unaffordable downtown Seattle.

The prototypes have been on display since last fall: two boxy, modular, prefabricated apartment units. Unico says they can be built for less than conventional, "stick-built" apartments and stacked all kinds of ways, like children's building blocks.

"Coming soon to Seattle and Portland urban neighborhoods," a sign at the display promises.

Soon means now.

Unico has filed preliminary paperwork with the city to build the first for-real apartment complex with its factory-built "Inhabit" units on a hilly site on Dexter Avenue North, above Lake Union.

Plans show 62 units, configured in stacks of three and four, atop a concrete base that would contain parking and six "live-work" spaces.

A city design review board got its first look at the plans last month. It called the proposal "promising.""

FULL STORY: How will market for prefab apartments stack up in Seattle?

Tuesday, May 27, 2008 in The Seattle Times

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