Seattle has issued the building permit for a mid-rise condo building on Martin Luther King Jr. Way S. that will sell 31 homes at permanently affordable prices. The permit for 6740 MLK Way S., issued Oct. 15, carries a reported value of $5.1 million.
It came ten weeks after the groundbreaking. Habitat for Humanity Seattle-King & Kittitas Counties and African Community Housing & Development, a Rainier Valley nonprofit, put shovels in the dirt on Aug. 5 in front of nearly 100 people, Habitat reported.
The permit's own words are short: "Establish use as apartments and retail. Construct new mixed use apartment building." Mechanical work is included.
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Six years from leftover land to a permit
The lot is one of a string of small parcels Sound Transit bought along MLK Way when it built Link light rail through the valley. It needed them for construction. Once the trains were running, it didn't.
In October 2020 the Sound Transit board declared 12 of those sites, near the Mount Baker, Columbia City and Othello stations, suitable for housing and approved handing them to the city at no cost, according to Sound Transit. Ten went to Seattle's Office of Housing in late 2021 for homes people can buy, not rent.
The city picked developers for four of them in August 2023 and put more than $7.5 million behind those four awards, the mayor's office announced. Mayor Bruce Harrell said the program would help "build generational wealth and prevent displacement."
What goes up at 6740
Habitat describes a mid-rise building of one-, two- and three-bedroom condos. When the partners first laid out the plan in 2023, they put 1,452 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor for local small businesses, Habitat said at the time. The permit matches that, with apartments and retail in one building.
The homes are for households earning at or below 80% of King County's median income. Buyers' mortgage payments will be held to no more than 35% of their income, according to Habitat. The homes stay affordable for the next buyer, too.
One number has moved. The city's 2023 award listed 30 homes at this address, 10 one-bedrooms and 20 two-bedrooms. Habitat and Sound Transit now both say 31, and the newer plan adds three-bedroom units.
Habitat CEO Brett D'Antonio said the work is meant to "center Black homeownership and upward mobility throughout South Seattle." Bilan Aden, a co-founder of African Community Housing & Development, said in 2023 the projects would "build generational stability so families can thrive."
The rest of the corridor
August's ceremony was the partners' second groundbreaking on MLK Way. They have three projects going together, and their partnership, which started in August 2023, will produce 70 permanently affordable homes, Habitat said. The other two are townhomes at 4865 MLK Way and a condo building at 3601 MLK Way.
Other teams hold the remaining sites. Sound Transit's list includes eight homes at 7908 MLK Way, two more sites awarded in September 2025, and 18 homes at 6701 MLK Way, awarded in August 2026.
Sound Transit's project page estimates the 6740 building will be finished in 2030.
The $5.1 million is the value reported to the city on the building permit. It isn't a sale price or the full cost of the project. It's the first building permit for the condos in our records.
See all of Seattle's latest permit numbers, updated weekly.
Sources
- Habitat for Humanity Seattle-King & Kittitas Counties, "Habitat SKKC and ACHD Celebrate Continued Partnership at Second Groundbreaking" (Aug. 13, 2026): habitatskc.org
- Habitat for Humanity Seattle-King & Kittitas Counties, partnership announcement with African Community Housing & Development (Aug. 9, 2023): habitatskc.org
- Office of the Mayor, City of Seattle, "Seattle Office of Housing Invests in Anti-Displacement Affordable Housing through Rainier Valley Affordable Homeownership Initiative" (Aug. 8, 2023): harrell.seattle.gov
- Sound Transit, "Rainier Valley Homeownership Initiative and Youth Achievement Center": soundtransit.org
- City of Seattle building permit 6959898-CN, issued Oct. 15, 2026.
- Photo: Oran Viriyincy from Santa Barbara, United States, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons: commons.wikimedia.org
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