Rents Sink Toward Reset Moment in Cities With Smoke-Filled Skies
The pandemic, protests, and now wildfires are dimming the attraction of once-attractive neighborhoods—and that might be a good thing.
The Solis, a new rental building in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood.
Photographer: Chona Kasinger for Bloomberg Businessweek
The One Year, One Neighborhood series follows small businesses in the Pike/Pine corridor in Seattle, the first coronavirus hot spot in the U.S., to get a sense of what cities will look like as they reopen.
The Solis, a new 45-unit apartment building in Seattle, has everything a young urban professional would have wanted six months ago. It’s in the heart of Capitol Hill, a walkable neighborhood full of restaurants, bars, and entertainment. The building has ample bike parking and a landscaped roof deck with a fire pit and outdoor couches. But what the developers are now promoting is its elaborate air filtration system. A sandwich board outside reads, “OUR AIR IS BETTER.”
It’s a pitch tailor-made for a pandemic caused by an airborne pathogen in a city that’s blanketed with wildfire smoke. Few are taking the bait, though. “It’s been really slow,” says Brian Heather, chief executive officer of SolTerra Capital Inc., the company that developed the property. A building he once thought would fully lease in three months this spring is only about 60% full.