The Satterberg Foundation, through their programmatic and community work in the Seattle area, became increasingly aware of the hardships many nonprofits—particularly those led by people of color or serving communities of color—were experiencing due to the rising costs of operating in the city. The massive redevelopment of higher-priced and more profitable buildings was routinely replacing historical legacy.
Seeing an opportunity to support nonprofits through authentic, relationship-based partnerships within Black, Indigenous, and People of Color communities and inspired by examples of other direct investment projects undertaken by like-minded private foundations, the Satterberg Foundation purchased the Metropole building in 2019 and set out to design and develop the Metropole with intentionality and consideration of the community’s current and future needs.
After many months of discussion, collaboration, and strategizing with community partners, they helped highlight the needs of the community and how we could partner together to build the Metropole building while keeping these needs at the forefront. The community called for a diverse program mix, affordable childcare services in the city, traditional leased office spaces, flexible and open floorplans, an inclusive space with affordable rent, event and gathering spaces, and shared access to resources and amenities.
Diverse program mix
The findings from this engagement process recommend a program mix including affordable childcare, a significant amount of meeting and gathering space, a commercial kitchen for communal use, and a mix of open office and demised office spaces for nonprofits.
Childcare
Due to the shortage of childcare in Seattle and its surrounding areas, many of the respondents felt that affordable childcare would be an essential amenity to add to the building.
Traditional leased office space
Given a choice between traditional leased office space and co working space, 64% of the group would prefer traditional leased office space. Of those respondents, the majority (85%) were employed at organizations with 20 or fewer employees.
Flexible space
Survey respondents and focus group participants also preferred spaces with flexible, open floor plans to accommodate working desk space and affordable, shared private meeting and event space.
Inclusive and affordable
The broader community indicated that The Metropole should strive for true inclusion by being accessible, inclusive, and affordable, both by standard metrics (price, size, etc.) and from a human perspective (tone at reception, ability to accommodate differing mobility/sensory challenges, etc.).
Events and gathering space
The broader community requested that nonprofits from target communities be able to host events, meetings, and other important gatherings in spaces that are beautiful, well-maintained, well-amenitized, and affordably priced.
Shared access to resources and amenities
The broader community would like to be able to access many of the resources needed to grow and support their organizations on-site and potentially share resources across teams.
With these goals and values in mind, the Satterberg Foundation began construction in April 2022. Throughout the multi-year process of designing, building, finding tenants, and curating artwork, the Satterberg Foundation established various checkpoints to ensure continued alignment throughout this undertaking.
