It’s a start: Nimbus Apartments adds 165 units in downtown Everett

EVERETT — Snohomish County will need 143,000 more homes by 2044 to meet the demand for housing.

Everett just added 165.

The Nimbus Apartments opened its doors in November offering 165 new residences in the city’s downtown.

But more are needed here and elsewhere.

The Washington State Department of Commerce released its final housing projection needs this week, which said the state will need more than 1 million additional homes in the next two decades. More than half of those residences are needed for residents at the lowest income levels.

Snohomish County will need another 143,000 homes in the next 20 years to meet demand, the report said. By 2044, over 308,000 new people are projected to live here, pushing the county’s total population past 1.1 million. King County will require more than 335,000 new homes; Pierce County, 135,000.

The Nimbus, an eight-story building at 2701 Rockefeller Ave., offers market-rate studio and one- and two-bedroom units and a ninth-level roof top garden.

Monthly rents range from $1,200 to $1,800 for a studio; $1,600 to $2,300 for a one-bedroom and $2,300 to $3,000 for a two-bedroom apartment.

Parking is extra.

Reserved parking is available in the building’s underground garage for $150 a month or at a lot across the street for $75 a month.

“It’s about 70% full,” property manager Dynasty Williams said.

Rental rates at the pet-friendly Nimbus are on par with other new developments in the city’s downtown, including Kinect @ Broadway and the Marquee Apartments.

Nearly two-thirds of Everett-area apartments rent for $1,500 to $2,000 a month. Another 28% rent for $2,000 or more, according to RentCafe, an online apartment listing service.

The Nimbus hopes to attract Boeing engineers, tech workers and Funko employees, “folks who make $75,000 or more a year,” Williams said.

Funko is just a block away to the west.

Most prospective tenants must earn $75,000 or more — $6,250 a month — to qualify for an apartment, “two-and-a-half times the rent,” said Williams, citing the industry’s standard monthly income formula.

The Nimbus reserved 33 affordable studio apartments for people earning $52,000 a year or less. The 420 square-foot units rent for about $1,200 a month. Three are still available, Williams said.

Floor-to-ceiling windows inside each unit offer expansive views of the city’s skyline and the Cascade Range, and plenty of light during the region’s Vitamin D-deprived winter months. Common areas with kitchens, soft seating and gaming areas are spread throughout the building. A Pac-Man video game is tucked into the corner of one lounge.

Seattle-based Trent Development bought the property from the YMCA of Snohomish County for $3.6 million in 2020, according to Snohomish County property records. At the time, Trent estimated the project’s total cost, including excavating the building’s underground garage, at between $90 and $95 million.

The Nimbus is another coup for Everett’s core, according to city officials and merchants who say downtown Everett can only benefit from more housing and more residents.

“We’re excited for it,” said Aaron Scheckler who co-owns Petrikor, a home and garden store a few blocks away at 2816 Rucker Ave.

“I hope we’re their first stop,” he said of residents.

“I think it will bring the revitalization to downtown that’s needed and give more stores the opportunity to open here,” Scheckler said.

The Nimbus took nearly three years to complete.

In 2020, Seattle-based Trent Development bought the property from the YMCA of Snohomish County for $3.6 million in 2020, according to Snohomish County property records. At the time, Trent estimated the project’s total cost, including excavating an underground garage, at between $90 and $95 million.

More are needed

Nearly 650 new apartments have sprung up in Everett’s downtown and waterfront in the past three years.

Kinect @ Broadway, at 3214 Broadway, opened in 2020 with 140 apartments. The Marquee debuted last year at 2721 Wetmore Ave. with 77 units.

The Waterfront Place Apartments, a two-building complex and the first housing to be built on the city’s waterfront, opened with 266 units at the Port of Everett.

More waterfront residences are planned, said Catherine Soper, the Port’s communications and marketing director. The Port’s Waterfront Place district can support another 400 units, Soper said, and there’s room for another 300 units at the port’s Millwright District.

It’s a start, but more are needed.

Dan Eernissee, Everett’s economic development director, has said the downtown area needs another 2,000 homes to make the city’s core a more happening place.

“The only fix long-term is to add more jobs, more people,” Eernissee told The Daily Herald this fall.

Outside the downtown core, at 8102 Evergreen Way near Highway 526, an income-restricted apartment building with 430 units is expected to open this year. The new complex is meant for workers earning about half of the area’s average wage.

The median household income in Snohomish County — half earned more, half earned less — is about $96,000. Per capita income is $44,000, according to the U.S. Census data.

The City of Everett, in its Rethink Housing Action Plan, forecasts a need for at least 23,000 more housing units throughout the city in the next decade, a mix that should include supportive housing, income-based and rent-restricted rental housing, market-rate rental housing and owner-occupied homes.

Like many other cities in the region, Everett faces a growing inability to allow those who work here — teachers, nurses, police officers, retail employees and others — to live in the communities they serve.

When there aren’t enough homes and apartments to accommodate the population, competition for those existing dwellings can cause rental rates and home prices to soar.

Janice Podsada: 425-339-3097; jpodsada@heraldnet.com; Twitter: @JanicePods.