By Joey Thompson
The building at 115 S. Jackson St., part of the new RailSpur development, now hosts a coffee shop, bike store and beer-heavy convenience store.
When Jon Buerge, chief development officer for Urban Villages, first visited Pioneer Square in 2016, he was blown away by the historic neighborhood’s preserved buildings and walkways.
The real estate developer is headquartered in a historic portion of downtown Denver where urban renewal saw many historic buildings get torn down and replaced, leaving only a hodgepodge of turn-of-the-century architecture.
“There aren’t a lot of districts like Pioneer Square in the country,” Buerge told the Business Journal in November.
After subsequent visits, Urban Villages began plans for RailSpur, a $180 million development that spans three buildings on one block, with a mix of retail, residential and office space, each spilling into shared alleys, creating what the group calls a “micro-district.”
“All of these different pieces are going to be kind of glued together with the way that we create experiences in the alley that bring in music and art and food and entertainment,” Buerge said. “I think it’s going to be very unique in that pocket of Pioneer Square.”
Earlier this month, the retail portion at 115 S. Jackson St. opened to the public, with a coffee shop, beer- and wine-heavy convenience store and a bike shop. A taqueria is set to open in the building early next year.
The next phase of retail will be a bakery and market hall at 419 Occidental Ave., the former FX McRory’s site. It will host a variety of food offerings and an underground speakeasy bar, with the hopes of opening ahead of Major League Baseball’s All Star Weekend next summer.
Then comes the 120-room hotel with multiple restaurants and a rooftop bar — the last piece of the micro-district to open, scheduled for 2024.
Altogether, it’s a lofty investment seeking to change perceptions of a neighborhood that has long been mired in public safety concerns. Buerge spoke with the Business Journal about why he’s betting big on Seattle’s oldest neighborhood.
RailSpur developer Jon Buerge stands in a key alleyway crossroads that’s part of his company’s project in Seattle’s historic Pioneer Square neighborhood.
About Jon Buerge
- Title:Chief development officer, partner, Urban Villages
- Based:Denver, Colorado
- Hometown:Aspen, Colorado
- Yearsatcompany:15
- Education:University of Colorado: Bachelor of Arts in Economics, Juris Doctor, Master of Business Administration
What gave you the confidence to invest in Pioneer Square, given all the perceptions of the neighborhood?
Obviously, the viaduct coming down was something that was a really critical piece for us investing in the neighborhood. I think we can all see what a difference it’s going to make. But it’s still a construction site and that’s going to take a few years before that’s really the amenity that we know it’s going to be, connecting Pioneer Square to the water.
A big part of the foot traffic for RailSpur’s retail would presumably be from the adjoining office workers. How do you get office and retail to complement each other?
I’ve heard people say employers have to earn the commute. Our belief is that, long term, the office is going to do much better when it’s integrated with residential, and it’s integrated with the events and all the stuff that you see in Pioneer Square. Those are the kind of neighborhoods that are going to thrive in the future. And the ingredients are all there in Pioneer Square.
Is there any update on office tenants?
It’s no surprise that the office market is very weak right now. We are working with a number of different tenant prospects on spaces. We’re also looking at building some spaces out in a speculative way because we know that the market is going to come back. We understand fully that the old way of thinking about office space has got to change and evolve.
How do big events like the All-Star Game and the World Cup play into those plans?
We had the All-Star Weekend in Denver (in 2021), and I’ve never seen more people in downtown Denver. It was shocking, and it’s going to be the same thing in Seattle. We want to make sure that all those visitors, all those locals that will be down there, are getting to experience RailSpur in a way that they’ll get a sense of what’s going to be.
How important is that opportunity for changing perceptions about the neighborhood?
Those are all experiences and impressions that people have locked in their brains until they go and they experience it in a different light. I think that the All-Star game is going to be a great time for people that don’t come down to Pioneer Square very often to come and see the future Pioneer Square. It is changing and there’s no doubt that if you fast forward five or six years from now, Pioneer Square will be a completely different neighborhood than so many Seattleites have stigmatized.
https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2022/12/21/seattle-pioneer-square-redevelopment-