Seattle: America's Next Big Gateway

[Metro Jacksonville]

Seattle: America's Next Big Gateway



At last week's Consolidation Task Force meeting, task force member Kay Ehas asked Paul Crawford of the Office of Economic Development (OED) if our local government was aware of what it takes to retain young professionals and if we are doing anything about it. That question went unanswered.

With this in mind, Metro Jacksonville shares a photo essay of Seattle by a young professional from Jacksonville, who now lives on the West Coast. Seattle is nationally recognized as a thriving city for millennials. Compare this environment with what you know of Jacksonville and decide for yourself if we know what we're doing to retain young professionals.

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2013-oct-seattle-americas-next-big-gateway

[simms3]

Lol honored (truly) - these pics are over a year old already (along with commentary).  I might have to update this thread soon with some new pics!  These pics were taken before I even moved out West and gained an understanding of the markets out here...Seattle is still in one of the largest apartment booms (and office booms) in the country right now, so it already looks pretty different from above.  I also know folks with Columbia Center ownership (Beacon Capital) and leasing (CAC Group), so I have tentative access to the roof of that building with appropriate notice.

In THIS thread I compiled data from a non-profit DT data tracker, and according to 4 different criteria weighted differently, Seattle has the 8th largest downtown in the US behind Midtown Manhattan, Lower Manhattan, Chicago, LA, SF, Boston, and Philadelphia, larger than Houston's, DC's, Dallas's, Atlanta's, etc.

"Downtown Seattle" has 294,369 employees (7th largest), 119,590 residents within 1 mile (10th largest), 150 employees per acre (10th most "dense" CBD by employment), and an extremely high "live-work" quotient of 41.0%, meaning that 41.0% of residents living within 1 mile of downtown also work downtown (behind only Midtown Manhattan, DT Chicago, and DT Portland, and ahead of Center City Philadelphia, DT San Francisco, and even Lower Manhattan), equating to more walkers, bikers, and bus/streetcar riders.

[Keith-N-Jax]

Beautiful city, on my list to visit.

[Noone]

Thank you for the tour. I've never been to Seattle.

[KenFSU]

Awesome tour, Simms.

St. James Cathedral looks beautiful.

How does the cost of living in Seattle compare to someplace like an Atlanta or Dallas?

[BridgeTroll]

I love Seattle...

[Keith-N-Jax]

Awesome tour, Simms.

St. James Cathedral looks beautiful.

How does the cost of living in Seattle compare to someplace like an Atlanta or Dallas?

Good question/ Having lived in Atlanta I would like to know this as well

[Gators312]

Seattle is my favorite place for summer getaways. 

Seattle really seems to have their ducks in a row and flourishing!

[Garden guy]

I love the line someone said on another topic about seattle...."seattle prefers to invest in its people and infrastructure than an NFL owner"

[BridgeTroll]

I love the line someone said on another topic about seattle...."seattle prefers to invest in its people and infrastructure than an NFL owner"

I love that you love that line... 

[KenFSU]

I love the line someone said on another topic about seattle...."seattle prefers to invest in its people and infrastructure than an NFL owner"

Unfortunately, that line isn't entirely true though.

Both CenturyLink Field (where the Seahawks play) and Safeco Field (where the Mariners play) were funded, largely publicly ($300 million for the NFL stadium, nearly $500 million for the MLB stadium), after the teams' respective owners threatened to relocate the franchises.

[Keith-N-Jax]

Who's investing into an NFL owner? Can we please enjoy a thread with always turning it into a this vs that battle.

[Bridges]

Seattle is one of my favorite cities in the states.  Been several times.  One of the best things are NFL gamedays there.  A lot of people just walk to the stadium from the city, hitting bars on the way.  It was great to see people pouring out of the stadium and into the bar/restaurants downtown, instead of being funneled as quickly as possible away from downtown.

[simms3]

How does the cost of living in Seattle compare to someplace like an Atlanta or Dallas?

Considerably more expensive - I think median home prices in the metro are above $300K and above $400K in the city.  Office rents are more comparable to Houston, Miami, and Philadelphia ($40s FS for class A).  Apartment rents are higher than in Atlanta - in Midtown Atlanta you can find a nice 1BR (not in a new/condo building, but decent) for $1000, but in Seattle I think you're going to have difficulty finding any 1BR near downtown or in Capitol Hill for under $1500 and they go higher.  I think urban rents in Seattle are about $2.50-$3.50psf whereas in Atlanta they are $1.50-$2.50psf.  Atlanta's latest apartment tower still UC has their website up and they post floorplans and pricing and it looks like they are going for about ~$2.25psf average effective rents in the building.  I can guarantee you all the new stuff going up in Seattle is topping $3.00psf.

Pay in Seattle is very very high though - almost comparable to SF, where folks (i.e. Millennials who are renting the new stuff) spend 50-60+% of their income on housing.  Folks (Millennials) in Seattle are still only spending the "norm" of 30-40% on housing, which is why rents are still skyrocketing because of the room to push for more.

Seattle's downtown is much larger than Atlanta's - it would be akin to combining DT + Midtown Atlanta, adding cohesiveness, shopping + tourists (a higher class of tourist than visits DT Atlanta), and more apartment high rises.  Bellevue is very similar to Buckhead.

[thelakelander]

I love the line someone said on another topic about seattle...."seattle prefers to invest in its people and infrastructure than an NFL owner"

Unfortunately, that line isn't entirely true though.

Both CenturyLink Field (where the Seahawks play) and Safeco Field (where the Mariners play) were funded, largely publicly ($300 million for the NFL stadium, nearly $500 million for the MLB stadium), after the teams' respective owners threatened to relocate the franchises.

Sounds like they got the wrong city. I believe that quote was made in reference to Portland.