Aug 12, 2022 - Real Estate

Seattle is one of the top cities for live-work-play apartments

Illustration of an office cubicle with a roof like a house.

Illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios

A total of 7,100 mixed-use apartments have been completed in Seattle since 2012, per a report from RentCafe, a national apartment-search website.

Why it matters: Rental communities that include residential, office and retail space gained a foothold in the last decade, especially as the pandemic heightened renters' preference for having daily activities close at hand, the report found.

Data: RentCafe; Chart: Axios Visuals
Data: RentCafe; Chart: Axios Visuals

What they found: 14% of the units built in Seattle between 2012 and 2021 were mixed-use, per RentCafe.

  • That puts Seattle among the top 20 cities for its share of new apartment buildings that combine residential, office and retail.

Yes, but: We trail 16 other cities — including San Francisco, Columbus, Boston, Chicago, Nashville, New York and Atlanta — when it comes to our focus on adding mixed-use developments.

Zoom out: Nationwide, apartments in "live-work-play" buildings quadrupled compared to 10 years ago, from 10,000 to 43,000 apartments per year, according to Yardi Matrix data.

The bottom line: Blending different types of real estate is one way cities are evolving in the era of remote and hybrid work.

avatar

Get more local stories in your inbox with Axios Seattle.

🌱

Support local journalism by becoming a member.

Learn more

More Seattle stories

No stories could be found

Seattlepostcard

Get a free daily digest of the most important news in your backyard with Axios Seattle.

🌱

Support local journalism by becoming a member.

Learn more