I did a napkin count of housing projects that started 2010-2012 in greater Downtown, maybe 2000 acres. It's rivaling the 2006-2009 boom already. Not a boom by Shanghai standards but a lot for us.
Completed based on starts mostly in 2010 are about 800 units. Half lowrise and half in shorter highrises of 16 and 17 floors.
Underway or at least in demo are 4,500 units. That includes highrises of 40, 24, 24, 24, 24, 16, 13, and 10 floors totaling 2,100 units. A lot of fringe neighborhoods have a large volume of six-story projects. (This is based on the projects I'm thinking of now, which might be incomplete but is probably close.)
The 40-story project just pulled the fences all the way out and starting moving dirt last week. They have a drill rig though I don't know whether they're drilling. But fences covering sidewalks mean a real start given that it's not for overhead protection as it was a vacant lot.
There's one project in demo I'm thinking of, a nine-story half-block near the Space Needle that appears to be remediating asbestos. City records show that they nearly have a building permit and just got a dewatering permit. Seems like the preliminary stage of a real job to me. (Note: Land use permit is already in hand, aka "approval" according to some SSPers.)
Last edited by mhays; Jun 17, 2012 at 7:18 AM.
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