If you've driven past West Mercer Street in Lower Queen Anne lately, you've probably noticed the building at 118 W. Mercer finally starting to look like a building.
Altaire at Queen Anne, a 114-unit affordable apartment project, has moved out of the concrete stage and into wood framing, according to a construction update from SRM Development. SRM is developing the project with the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle on a site that had been vacant for about five years.
"September was a turning point on site," SRM wrote in its October update. After months of below-grade and concrete work, the building moved into framing, "the stage where the building starts to look like homes."
What crews did in September
Crews spent September finishing the Level 3 concrete, including stripping forms and stressing the post-tensioned deck. That set up the first framing panels, which were scheduled to go up on Level 3 in late September.
Around the site, crews also made progress on the north and east retaining walls and got ready to pull shoring from the lower levels in early October.
The next few weeks move fast. SRM's schedule has framing climbing about one floor every one to two weeks, from Level 4 in early October to Level 7 by mid-November. On the ground floor, Level 1 topping slabs are scheduled for mid to late October.
The schedule targets finishing framing around the end of the year and getting a certificate of occupancy in fall 2027. When the project broke ground in March, the Urban League and SRM said move-ins were expected to begin in November 2027.
Who it's for
The building will have 44 studios, 52 one-bedroom apartments, six two-bedrooms and 12 three-bedrooms, according to SRM, plus one level of below-grade parking. It will serve households earning about $66,000 to $100,000 a year, including local workers, families and artists.
The Urban League and SRM say the goal is to make sure people who contribute to the city's culture and economy can keep living in Seattle, in one of its higher-cost neighborhoods.
The project is a public-private partnership. The Urban League's release lists the Seattle Office of Housing, Amazon's housing fund, the Washington State Housing Finance Commission, Citibank and PNC Bank as partners. Runberg Architecture Group designed the building, and the design team also includes KPFF, Brumbaugh Landscape Architecture, Emerald City Engineers, Terracon, NV5, DCI and Duncanson Surveying.
"In a challenging development environment where rising costs and interest rates have made new housing increasingly difficult to finance, Altaire at Queen Anne demonstrates that mission-driven collaborations deliver meaningful results," the Urban League and SRM said in March.
It's part of a bigger partnership. The Urban League and SRM opened Altaire at Jackson Park, a 207-unit building in northeast Seattle, earlier this year. SRM and Hopelink also plan to start Altaire at East Main, a 146-unit affordable project in Bellevue, in early 2027.
Why it matters for Contractors
The update is a good look at how a typical Seattle mid-rise comes together: below-grade work and retaining walls, a concrete podium with a post-tensioned deck, then wood framing stacked on top. Once the podium is done, the pace picks up. A floor every one to two weeks keeps framers, and the trades right behind them, busy.
The sequence matters for subcontractors. As framing climbs toward Level 7 in mid-November and wraps around the end of the year, the work shifts to roofing, windows, siding, rough plumbing, electrical and mechanical, then drywall, finishes and site work through 2027. Subs who want in on the later phases of a project like this should be talking to the builder now, not after the frame is up.
SRM describes itself as a development and construction firm that handles every phase of a project, from land acquisition and design to construction and long-term management. With Altaire at East Main scheduled to start in Bellevue in early 2027, firms that do good work on Queen Anne could be in line for the next one.
The partners themselves point to a tough development environment, with rising costs and interest rates making new housing harder to finance. Affordable projects like this one, built on layered public and private money, are still moving. For contractors, that makes the groups who know how to put those deals together worth knowing.