Coastal Washington’s Seabrook Is A Cutting-Edge, Old-Fashioned Town

04.01.2024 - 13:13 / forbes.com

On the face of it, Seabrook, a small town 2.5 hours from Seattle (and about the same distance from Portland) on a bluff overlooking the rugged Washington coast, is a quaint collection of 500 houses, a few casual restaurants, and a very chill vibe. But what seems to be an edenic vacation spot on a dramatic bluff is also a thoughtful, intentional community designed to take the best elements of pre-20th-century urban design and bring them forward to the 21st century. Founder Casey Roloff, who’s as unpretentious a CEO as they come, is the mastermind behind this concept, which has made it possible for many homeowners without infinite pockets to attain the unattainable: life in a picture-perfect beach town.

Seabrook was founded by Roloff and his wife, Laura, in 2004, inspired in part by Seaside, Florida, Robert Davis’ residential community that prioritizes walking over driving, communal spaces over private gates, and access to virtually everything one needs to inhabit a small town, including a grocery store, restaurants, a school, a bank, and a range of recreational activities for all ages. Like Seaside, Seabrook espouses the values of New Urbanism, whose answer to suburban sprawl is human-scaled development focused on practical design and function.

Seabrook is an idyllic place — but it’s also a practical manifestation of Roloff’s ideas about what a town can be. Streets are designed to make cars drive slowly. (No speed bumps here; there’s a different and surprising traffic-calming gesture at every turn so no one gets complacent.) Kids can play safely all over town, and bikes and pedestrians have the run of the place. Full-time residents commingle with second-home owners and weekend renters.

In terms of real estate, options range from a two-person loft for under 800k to a 3,200-square-foot house just under $2 million. Compared to ocean-view properties on the California and Oregon coasts, this is what is known as a steal. In fact, the Washington coast was so undeveloped in the mid-90s when the Roloffs started building houses in the area that they had a hard time securing funding for their first build. (At the time, Casey was a house painter and Laura was a student.) Casey eventually connected with some local physicians who loaned the couple $150,000 at 14% interest to build their first house. That set off a series of 25 home projects in the next five years, which not only helped them raise capital for what would become the Seabrook project, it also gave them name recognition as successful developers in this high-risk area. But beyond success, the Roloffs were interested in growing their innovative ideas about modernizing old-style architecture, and merging beautiful design with practical functionality. And