Over the next five years, Watershed Community Development will create a five-building live/work district in Seattle’s Georgetown neighborhood. The Bend will construct affordable housing, support and share the arts, and build and nurture inclusive community. 

The Bend will include 600 new apartments to house 1,500+ people. The housing will cap rents to be affordable to residents who have low and moderate incomes and will close the gap between neighborhood workers and homes they can live in. Our work over the next decade to forge The Bend is guided by five Imperatives and 100 Commitments to our community.

This live/work district will feature over 35,000 square feet of affordable community space at street level. The ground floor will activate the streetscape with workspaces providing daily life amenities that are currently missing from the Duwamish Valley: grocery, childcare, healthcare, and financial services. The work spaces will also invite cultural, community, and nonprofit groups to Georgetown. Covered alleys will carve through the ground floors of new buildings, creating unique opportunities for art, small-scale workshops, and live/work units to enrich the pedestrian realm.

Our aim is to cultivate long-term community wealth through thoughtful real estate acquisition and development; community engagement and ownership; space for small business, nonprofit, and artistic growth; and programming that builds relationships between all the entities that are part of The Bend, the Georgetown neighborhood, and the greater Duwamish Valley.

Oasis Block

Oasis is our second project in the Live/Work District. It fills an entire block between 4th & 5th Avenues and Bennett & Brandon Streets. Watershed continues its commitment to provide affordable housing while maintaining the industrial and artistic character of Georgetown.

• This second project will include two buildings with approximately
• 220 residential units and
• 13,000 sq. ft. of community-serving businesses and organizations on the ground floor.
• Oasis Block will soon enter Early Design Guidance with the City.
• Affordable Housing Partner: TBD
• Architect: TBD

Elements Block

Elements is our first project in the Live/Work District. It’s located on the south half of the block between 4th & 5th Avenues and facing South Lucile St.

• This project will include 144 affordable apartments,
• 8 live/work units around a courtyard,
• a café, and
• four studios for working artists and artisans.
• Affordable Housing Developer: Together We Grow (TWG)
• Architect: Jackson|Main Architects

Library Block

The Library project occupies the south half of a block between 4th & 5th Avenues which faces South Findlay St. This project will bring more affordable apartments for artists, artisans, and Georgetown workers as well as needed neighborhood services.

• Current plans include 108 affordable apartments over a ground floor of nonprofit uses.
• We hope to host a daycare/early childhood learning center on this site.
• This project is in its schematic design phase.
• Affordable Housing Developer: TBD
• Architect: TBD

Espresso Block

The Espresso block project will fill the north half of a block between 4th & 5th Avenues, facing the Library Block project across South Findlay Street. Library Block and Espresso Block  will be the last of the 5 buildings to be constructed during the first phase of The Bend’s Live/Work district project, and will continue its commitment to affordability for all residents as well as the non-profits and neighborhood businesses who occupy the ground floor.

• Current plans include roughly 130 affordable apartments over a ground floor of nonprofit uses.
• We hope to host a small grocery or food market on this site.
• This project is in its schematic design phase.
• Affordable Housing Developer: TBA
• Architect: TBD

Street Experience

As stewards of this new development in Georgetown, we know one measure of success will be a safe and engaging pedestrian environment for residents and visitors alike. Our focus on the street experience includes two initiatives: Green Streets and Meander & Mews.

Green Streets/Streetscape

We are making moves to restore the biosphere and create a comfortable pedestrian streetscape. These include adding street trees, slowing traffic, creating swales that provide more native greenery, shortening crosswalk distances, and establishing plazas and pedestrian areas on minor cross streets on Bennett & Findlay. Architect: MxM Landscape Architecture

Meander & Mews

Our projects will contain a ‘meander,’ a pedestrian pathway that pays homage to the Duwamish River. The meander will go through and between buildings and onto the streetscapes, filled with local art. Master Planners: Signal Architecture

Custom illustrations for The Bend were created by Lara Kaminoff.