Developer Begins Work on First of 1,000 Multifamily Units in South Hill

ORIGINAL ARTICLE | https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2023/06/13/corliss-begins-work-apartments-south-hill.html

Construction crews have broken ground on a 120-unit apartment development in Puyallup's South Hill area.

The project is part of the 1,467-acre Sunrise master-planned community at 122nd Ave. E and Sunrise Boulevard E. and kicks off a major phase of multifamily development within the community.

Corliss Management Group is developing the five-building complex in a joint venture with Schuur Brothers Construction of Puyallup.The apartments, which are on track to be completed in June 2024, are a first for Sumner-based Corliss, which has focused on single-family homes. Though the development of Sunrise began in 1983, Corliss is only now beginning work on multifamily units.

“This is the start of about 1,000 multifamily units planned for the master-planned community,” said Mark Walsh, chief real estate investment officer for the company. “The 120 units is the beginning. We just submitted permits for the next 400 which will start next year.” All the of units expected to be developed over the next three or four years, Walsh said. A total of 900 units are in various stages the development pipeline.

At full build-out, 4,728 units of single-family and multifamily units are planned, including condominiums, apartments and townhomes. Corliss has so far sold about 3,000 lots to builders, with another 1,000 lots in the development pipeline. As of March 2022, 675 homes had been sold at an average price of $552,000. The first homes were sold in 2004.A 10-pad, 10-acre commercial development is also planned, Walsh said. It will have about 18,000 square feet of retail, 45,000 square feet of office or retail, 6,000 square feet for a sit-down restaurant and about 6,000 square feet for two quick-serve restaurants.

Jerome O’Leary of Kidder Mathews is the leasing agent for the retail development.

Corliss, a fifth-generation family business, was launched in 1892 as a sand, gravel and mineral company, but has always had a stake in real estate development.

The company sold its Corliss Resources division to Lehigh Hanson for an undisclosed amount at the end of 2021. Lehigh is the U.S. subsidiary of Heidelberg Materials which is based in Heidelberg, Germany. Corliss retained ownership of the land and is leasing back the property to Lehigh.

Corliss, which also provides private lending in real estate services, is self-capitalized, Walsh said, and so it's not at the mercy of the current economic conditions.

“We don’t need construction loans because we are funding our projects ourselves,” he said. “That definitely gives us a competitive advantage to be able to do that. And it also helps that our partner, Schuur Brothers, is a general contractor.”

Corliss also owns industrial and self-storage properties.