Historic Seattle’s Annual Preservation Celebration is coming up on September 25, 2025. We’ll celebrate the projects and people that help amplify our mission. Today, we feature Urban Villages for RailSpur Micro-District, the 2025 Best Preservation Project Award recipient.
Congratulations to Urban Villages!
Honoring excellence in preservation, the Best Preservation Project award celebrates RailSpur—a visionary micro-district in Pioneer Square that exemplifies the transformative power of adaptive reuse.
Named for the rail lines that once connected the Great Northern Railway to Seattle’s bustling port, RailSpur reimagines three historic warehouse buildings and the alleyways between them into a vibrant, interconnected hub. Through a dynamic mix of dining, retail, office, and hospitality spaces, RailSpur has become a catalyst for neighborhood revitalization—anchoring the community and drawing both locals and visitors to experience the renewed energy in the Pioneer Square Historic District.
The project includes:
- 115 S. Jackson Street: A two-story Art Deco-style building now home to 26 furnished suites with a shared rooftop deck, available for short-term rent through Sonder.
- 419 Occidental Avenue: A four-story brick-and-timber structure offering 77,000 square feet of bright, modernized retail and office space across eight levels. It is one of the few Seattle projects to earn both historic preservation tax credits and LEED Platinum certification. In late 2025, it will welcome three new restaurants by renowned Seattle restaurateur Renee Erickson, along with the Seattle debut of the iconic cocktail bar Death & Co.
- 100 S. King Street: Completed in May 2025, this final phase introduced Populus Seattle, a 120-room hotel and the second carbon-positive hotel in the U.S., alongside Firn, Pioneer Square’s first rooftop bar, and the Salt Harvest restaurant.
Perhaps the most distinctive element of RailSpur is its intentional activation of previously vacant alleyways. These corridors now host regular programming and community events—art installations, live concerts, pop-up bars, and block parties—breathing new life into the neighborhood and creating free, inclusive experiences for all.
RailSpur, Seattle’s largest recent adaptive reuse project, sets a new standard for preservation, sustainability, and community engagement.
Historic Seattle proudly congratulates everyone who helped bring this ambitious vision to life, and extends heartfelt thanks to Urban Villages for venturing from Denver to invest in the soul of Pioneer Square.
115 S. Jackson St. Project Team: SHED Architecture & Design, Chinn Construction, JTM Construction, Swenson Say Fagét, PAE, MIG-SvR, SparkLab Lighting Design
419 Occidental Ave. Project Team: SHED Architecture & Design, JTM Construction, Swenson Say Fagét, PAE, MIG-SvR
100 S King St. Project Team: Miller Hull Partnership, JTM Construction, Coughlin Porter Lundeen, Curioso , Site Workshop, Aparium Hotel Group.
Photo courtesy of Urban Villages