Seattle Sun Newspaper - Vol. 7, Issue 12, December 2003
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Seattle Sun News Briefs
Rekhi II Construction begins
By CLAYTON PARK
Two years after completing a six-story, mixed-use complex on the northeast corner of NE 125th Street and Lake City Way, developer Jo Rekhi has commenced construction of its sequel: a six-story addition dubbed The Rekhi Phase II.
The expansion will add 45 apartment units and 5,200 square feet of retail space on the ground floor, as well as one-and-a-half levels of below-grade parking.
Phase One of The Rekhi Building, which opened in 2001, has 39 apartment units on four upper floors, 9,000-square-feet of ground-floor retail space, anchored by a Subway sandwich shop on the corner, and 9,000 square feet of second-floor office space. It replaced a single-story building that was destroyed by a fire in 1998. The new building's final touch a large clock above the entrance to the Subway shop was added earlier this year.
The second phase is being built on the site of a single-story wood frame building, which was demolished in October. It had housed a beauty salon, a record shop and a barber shop.
Construction of The Rekhi Phase II is expected to last 12 months, with completion set for the fall of 2004.
The project architect is Jim Romano of Bumgardner Architects, whose firm also designed the first phase. He said Phase Two will offer complementary colors, but will have a "slightly different feel and look to it."
The facade facing Lake City Way, Romano said, will have a "simpler look" and will be primarily stucco with elements of metal siding.
The addition will continue the use of broad, weather-protecting canopies over the sidewalk and will also feature a pedestrian walkway on the north edge that will extend from Lake City Way to the parking lot area behind the building on its east side. The building will include a second-floor courtyard for its tenants.
As with the first phase, the general contractor for the project is The Rafn Co. Financing is provided by China Trust.
Jo Rekhi is a retired City of Seattle employee and Lake Forest Park resident.
Brain power: Allen chooses Fremont site for institute
By JAMES BUSH
The next set of advances in our understanding of the human brain may owe their existence to work now getting underway in Fremont.
That's where billionaire Paul Allen has sited his newly created Allen Institute of Brain Science. On Sept. 16, the Microsoft co-founder announced plans to devote $100 million in funding for brain research.
The institute's initial project, the Allen Brain Atlas, will use computer technology to map the genetic structure of a mouse brain (the animal most genetically similar to humans).
Spokesperson Michael Nank says the research will then be made available to other scientists over the Internet free of charge. "It is going to be used as a launch pad for scientists to mine the data," he says.
The Allen Brain Atlas project will be headed by Dr. Mark Boguski, an original member of the U.S. National Center for Biotechnology Information.
The institute is leasing 30,000 square feet in the Quadrant Lake Union Center. Nank says the institute will start off with about 25 employees and will eventually employ about 100 people.
Suzie Burke, a major Fremont property owner, says the institute is just the latest bio-tech operation to use the area along the Lake Washington Ship Canal as an incubator space. She cites PATH, which started in leased space on Nickerson Street and has now built its own headquarters near the Ballard Bridge.
The institute expects to post its first major release of data in early 2004, with quarterly updates over the following four years.