Garden apartments · Washington

Rainier Vista

Imported, unreviewedRedevelopedRetrofit builtSeattle, WA

Built mixed-income housing project adjacent to transit; no current development opportunity. · summary, model-written

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Rainier Vista — Historic exterior view of a former shopping center with manicured lawn and classical architecture. · verified by a vision model. Photo: Unknown author Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Site profile7 elements · what this site is built with · tap a chip for the evidence

Place

3+ other atlas sites within 10 km

This site: 5 within 10 km computed · all sites with this

30,000+ vehicles a day on an adjacent road

This site: 205,494 on I-5 fhwa-hpms · all sites with this

County permitting 2,000+ apartment units a year

This site: 7,119 units, King County census-bps · all sites with this

County typical rent $2,000+

This site: $2,323/mo zillow · all sites with this

Interstate or freeway within 600 m

This site: I-5 fhwa-hpms · all sites with this

Strategy

Redeveloped

This site: 895 households in a walkable mixed-income community with new community parks and gardens, pedestrian scaled streetscapes, and community services all adjacent… record · all sites with this

New use

Housing

This site: …new_use field newtypes-extraction · all sites with this

All elements and lists · Trends

Now

Status	Retrofit builtWikipedia no source
Strategy	RedevelopedWikipedia no source
New uses	housingWikipedia no source
What is there now	895 households in a walkable mixed-income community with new community parks and gardens, pedestrian scaled streetscapes, and community services all adjacent to the Link stationnewtypes-extraction reported

Links out

Every link is built from an id this record holds (parcel number, filer CIK, Wikidata item, Census tract, coordinates) or from the name and city typed into a search. Nothing here is a guessed address. Search links are marked search in their source note; commercial listing links are marked for search engines not to follow. Hover a link for why it is here.

Official records (3)

government and regulatory records for this site, built from ids on the record

King County (53033) profile (data.census.gov)from data.census.gov
FEMA flood map (NFHL) at this point (search)from msc.fema.gov
EPA ECHO facilities within 1 milefrom echo.epa.gov

Reference (3)

encyclopedic and research references

Wikimedia Commons photos within 500 mfrom commons.wikimedia.org
Retrofitting Suburbia (book site)from retrofittingsuburbia.com
Seattle on Wikipediafrom en.wikipedia.org

Place (8)

map and street views by coordinates

Google Mapsfrom google.com
Street Viewfrom google.com
Bing Mapsfrom bing.com
Apple Mapsfrom maps.apple.com
OpenStreetMapfrom openstreetmap.org
Walk Score at this pointfrom walkscore.com
Transitland mapfrom transit.land
USGS National Mapfrom apps.nationalmap.gov

Market (1)

listings and owner pages; commercial, so search engines are told not to follow

LoopNet: for sale in Seattle, WA (search)from city search

News (2)

news searches and archived pages

Google News: “Rainier Vista” (search)from name search
Bing News: “Rainier Vista” (search)from name search

History and original facts

County	King County
Census division	9 · Pacific
Notes	Draft from djc.com, model-extracted, unreviewed: Rainier Vista was a 67-acre site with 481 WWII-era low-income homes redeveloped into 895 households of mixed-income housing adjacent to the Link light rail station.

Not yet recorded: acres, GLA, year opened, original developer, retrofit year. Know it? Tell us.

Planning

No zoning change, subsidy or policy tool recorded for this site.

Site context

Housing permits, King County (WA), 2024	7,119 units in 5+ unit buildings, 1,093 in 2–4, 2,352 single-family; 2023: 7,274 in 5+Census BPS
Other atlas sites nearby	5 within 10 km, 21 within 25 km: South Lake Union (0.0 km); Gas Station on 15th Avenue West (0.0 km); Mini Mart City Park (0.5 km); Rainier Square (0.7 km); Westlake Mall (1.0 km)computed
Retail trade in the county, 2025 (BLS QCEW)	102,448 jobs in 5,725 establishments; average annual pay $60,273; employment location quotient 0.72; employment -1.1% on the yearBLS QCEW 2025, NAICS 44-45, private
Jobs located in the tract, 2022	60,876 jobs; 838 in retail trade, 2,354 in accommodation and food (workplace blocks summed to tract 53033008102)Census LEHD LODES8 WAC 2022
Upward mobility (Opportunity Atlas, 2010 tract)	children of low-income (25th percentile) families reached the 36th income percentile as adults; 3.1% incarcerated at the 2010 count (49 children in the sample); born 1978–83, measured 2014–15Opportunity Insights
Food access (USDA FARA 2019, 2010 tract)	not a low-access tract at 1 mile; poverty rate 25.5%; median family income $138,281; 386 SNAP householdsUSDA ERS
Schools	Seattle Public Schools (PK-12); 4 public schools within 1 mile: Summit Public School: Sierra; Bailey Gatzert Elementary School; Middle College High School; Interagency Detention SchoolNCES EDGE
Elevation	134 ft above sea level at the site pointUSGS 3DEP
Storm events in the county, 2016-2025	8 county-logged events: 6 heavy rain, 1 debris flow, 1 flood; $34,994,000 property damage reported; 1 direct deaths; forecast-zone events (most flood, winter and heat) not countedNOAA Storm Events
Homes for sale in ZIP 98104, 2026-09	median list price $497,000 (-0.6% on the year); 59 active listings; median 50 days on market; 11% with a price cutRealtor.com Research
Retail trade in the county, 2012 to 2023	5,912 establishments (-10%); 104,570 jobs (+8%)Census CBP
Housing market in the county	typical home value $824,870 (-2% 1 yr, +7% 5 yr); typical rent $2,323/mo (+2% 1 yr), 2026-09Zillow Research
Traffic on the busiest road within 600 m (2024)	205,494 vehicles a day on I-5 (Interstate, 11 lanes); 9,952 trucks; 37 counted segmentsFHWA HPMS

Summary, model-written

Rainier Vista was redeveloped from low-income garden apartments into a built mixed-income housing community (895 households) with parks, pedestrian streetscapes, and Link station access. It is confirmed built and operational.

Why. No current development opportunity: retrofit already built (opp_score 0.0). Nearby peers include South Lake Union (0km, built) and Mini Mart City Park (0km, built).

Where it stands. Market context: Seattle King County median rent $2,323 (Zillow, 2026-09), 14.6% 5-year rent growth. County population grew 4.6% (2018–23). No current vacant parcels or pending deals noted.

For a planner

Mixed-income housing model with transit access established.
Adjacent to existing built projects (South Lake Union, Mini Mart City Park).

For a developer

No active opportunity: retrofit complete.
Market shows rent growth but no vacant land or pending permits for new build at this site.

What we do not know yet

No parcel data or deal history provided.
County population growth rate not tied to site-specific demand.

Generated by qwen3-30b-a3b-64k:latest on Dell 5820 RTX 3090 (Ollama, qwen3-30b-a3b) from the fields, parcels, deals and context layers on this page, with no outside knowledge. It is regenerated when the record changes and has not been checked by a person. How it is made.

Similar sites

Totem Lake Mall, Kirkland, WA · Malls · same strategy: redevelop; also in WA; 16 km away
Kirkland Parkplace, Kirkland, WA · Malls · same strategy: redevelop; also in WA; 13 km away
Longacres, Renton, WA · Other · same strategy: redevelop; also in WA; 17 km away
Mini Mart City Park, Seattle, WA · Gas stations · same strategy: redevelop; also in WA; 0 km away

Elsewhere on the web

Search images: Google · Bing · Commons · references: ULI case studies · Google Scholar

Multifamily screen

retrofit already built
county grew 4.6% 2018–23
median rent $2,035
housing in the record

Inputs: record fields (size, status) and county Census ACS 2018–2023 figures (growth, rent). How the points work. Not a recommendation.

Sources

An evolution of transit-oriented development in the Puget Sound
1 quoted sentence
Rainier Vista

Cite

Retrofit Atlas (2026). "Rainier Vista, Seattle, WA." Record n-4fb604fb2b, imported, unreviewed. Built on the public Retrofitting Suburbia map (Dunham-Jones and Williamson) and the sources listed. https://retrofitatlas.org/garden-apartments/wa/seattle-rainier-vista/ (accessed 2026-10-21).

BibTeX

@misc{retrofitatlas_seattlerainiervista,
  title = {Rainier Vista, Seattle, WA},
  author = {{Retrofit Atlas}},
  howpublished = {\url{https://retrofitatlas.org/garden-apartments/wa/seattle-rainier-vista/}},
  year = {2026},
  note = {Record n-4fb604fb2b, release 2026-10-21, tier: draft. Built on the Retrofitting Suburbia map (Dunham-Jones and Williamson) and the sources listed on the record. Accessed 2026-10-21}
}

How to cite, versioning