The apartment complex under construction in downtown Kent is expected to feature a rooftop deck with a bar, barbecue pits and a workout facility when it opens in September 2014.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Construction started in June on The Platform Apartments at the corner of West Smith Street and Fourth Avenue North, site of the old unfinished parking garage. The complex will feature about 166 units with an average square footage of 745 feet for the studio, one bedroom and two bedroom apartments, said Matt Parent, director of development for Goodman Real Estate of Seattle<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The five-story project will include a rooftop deck.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n “There will be a roof top deck with a bar, barbecues and fire pit, work out facility and party room,” Parent said in an email. “The rooftop deck will have a sound system people can play their own music.”<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The Seattle developer demolished the half-built parking garage in October 2011 to make room for the apartments and about 3,000-square feet of retail space on the ground floor.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n “We are marketing the space,” Parent said when asked if any retailers had been lined up.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The number of retail spaces will depend on the leases but Parent said he expects it to be two shops. He said the types of businesses are still to be determined.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n The previous developer ran out of money in 2007 after constructing a half-built parking garage as part of a proposed hotel, condominiums and retail space development. The garage loomed as an eyesore for four years before Goodman agreed to tear down the garage and build the first urban-style apartments in Kent.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Kurt Hanson, city economic development manager, said the foundation kisses up to the city’s Town Square Plaza and that crews soon will start putting up sections five stories high.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Parent didn’t disclose possible rental rates but Hanson said at a recent ShoWare Center Public Facilities District meeting that rent could be about $1.75 per square foot. That would put the apartments in the range of about $1,300 per month based on an average square footage of 745 square feet.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n