First phase of $180M RailSpur 'micro-district' in Pioneer Square wraps up
Urban Villages is looking to fill over 63,000 square feet of new office space in Pioneer Square, which is struggling under the weight of the pandemic as office buildings remain largely unoccupied.
Jon Buerge, chief development officer of the Denver-based company, isn’t overly concerned. It helps that he doesn’t have financial partners breathing down his neck.
The office space is in 419 Occidental, the new name of an old building that was home to FX McRory’s bar and restaurant for 39 years. The eight-story building is one of three early-20th-century structures that Urban Villages started to assemble 11 years ago, eventually paying $32.9 million.
The building is the first phase of the assemblage known as RailSpur, a $180 million redevelopment that looks inward toward the block’s unique network of alleys – one running east-west and the other north-south. The goal is have commercial and social activity spill out from the buildings and onto the lit alleys lined with art and programming like concerts and a farmers’ market.
Urban Villages calls the project “a micro-district,” that includes buildings at 115 S. Jackson St., which is is north of 419 Occidental, and the Westland Building to the west at 100 S. King St. The former is being turned into a micro-apartments with ground-floor retail and the latter will be a boutique hotel.
