Seattle Condos | Seattle Condos for Sale | Reviews by Marco & Wendy

Update on Koda Condominium Flats in the International District

Koda Condominium Flats, located at the corner of 5th Ave and South Main Street in the International District, have announced their official market debut and the grand opening of their Sales Gallery.

UPDATE OF THE DETAILS:

• 17 story concrete and steel building
• 203 units
• Units: Studios, open 1 bedrooms, 1 bedrooms, 2 bedroom 1 bath, 2 bedroom 2 bath, 3 bedroom 2 bath and live/work lofts
• Parking: 70+ parking spaces available to select units for $65,000 with optional electric charging stations; Building will have Tesla car share
• Storage: 75+ storage lockers available for $10,000-$30,000 depending on size and location
• Prices: starting in the mid $300,000s up to $1.4M
• HOA Dues: $.79/foot
• Features: walls of windows, central heat and air conditioning, ceiling heights from 8'10'' to 11'4'', solid core doors, engineered hardwood floors, smart thermostats, soft close cabinets with under cabinet lighting, Quartz counters, stainless appliances and back-lit bathroom mirrors
• Custom options: light or dark color palettes, closet systems, Quartz backsplash, hardwoods throughout, kitchen island, roller shades and home automation for audio, visual, security, lighting and window coverings
• Amenities:
  • Lobby level- concierge (8am-12am), dog lounge and run, co-working lounge
  • 5th floor- two guest suites
  • 7th floor- wellness center with gym, zen garden and yoga classroom, library and lounge and conference room
  • 17th floor- Club Koda with billiards table, bar and club room, fireside lounge, kitchen, theater room and private dining area
  • Rooftop- terrace with firepits, BBQs, dining tables, and lounge spaces in a park-like atmosphere
• Completion in 2020 with closings in December

By Marco Kronen with Seattle Condo Review: A guide to Seattle downtown condos.

Groundbreaking Ceremony at Koda is Tomorrow

The Groundbreaking Ceremony for Koda Condominium Flats, in Japantown at the heart of the Chinatown-International District, will take place tomorrow Thursday February 28th from 10am to 12pm.

The event will feature members of the design, development, marketing and sales teams along with government officials. The Chairman of the Development group behind Koda will speak along with several special guests.

If you are attending this event and see me there, please come say hi, I love meeting Seattle Condo Review readers.

By Marco Kronen with Seattle Condo Review: A guide to Seattle downtown condos.

Update on Koda Condominiums

Koda Condominium Flats has announced their sales center, presale and ground breaking timeline. They also released new renderings and their future cityscape tours.

SALES CENTER, GROUND BREAKING & PRESALES
The Sales Center will be located at at 510 Occidental Ave S in Pioneer Square, just north of Century Link Field, and it will open in the fall of this year. The Ground Breaking will also be in fall 2018 and that is when the presales will begin. More information about the presale process will be released in the next few weeks. Occupancy is scheduled for fall 2020. 

CITYSCAPE TOURS
The newly released cityscape tours are a collection of dynamic interactive tours to provide potential buyers an immersive virtual environment showing the building orientation and digital model home walkthroughs. They are also working on developing a virtual reality tour, which will show the evolution of the surrounding neighborhood and Seattle waterfront  as it might look in 2020 when KODA is complete.

FINISHES
The condominium homes will have hardwood flooring in the living spaces, carpeting in the bedroom space, quartz countertops, thermofoil cabinets, glass backsplash and stainless appliances. There is a light, medium and dark color scheme for these finish packages.

AMENITIES
For amenities, KODA will have a voluminous lobby and co-working space. The 7th floor will have a library, business center and conference room with outdoor Zen garden, fitness center with outdoor stretching and yoga retreat. The 17th floor has a rooftop deck entertainment space. 

RESERVATIONS
There are still units available for reservations before the presales officially begin. There are studio, one and two bedrooms condos available from $400,000 to $1.5M. A $5,000 refundable deposit will be due at the time of the reservations and provide the reservation holders with the first right to enter into a Purchase and Sale Contract within the set price range.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Koda is 95% Reserved & One88 70% Sold

After the reservation event for Koda Condominium Flats in the International District, 95% of the 203 units have first position reservations and deposits in place and an additional 80 have second and third position reservations as well.  There was a large turnout for the event (photo) and, as usual, the more affordable units sold first.

As for One88, Bosa's new construction building in Bellevue, they have announced that they sold over 100 out of 143 units (70%) in their private sales events. Opening this weekend on Saturday 3/10 to the public, there is not a whole lot of inventory left to choose from and none under $2M. One88 did not take reservations, they went straight to purchase contracts.

Based on this data, there is high demand for new construction condominium inventory in Seattle and Bellevue. Perhaps this type of response to these condominium building offerings will encourage more developers to build condo instead of apartment in the next cycle or for those developers who already have building permits in place and have not yet decided what type of product to build, rent or own, perhaps this information might lead them to build condominium product and help release the log jam of buyers looking to buy condominiums in our regions biggest cities.

By Marco Kronen with Seattle Condo Review: A guide to Seattle downtown condos.

 

Koda Condominiums Flats Will Be Taking Reservations This Saturday 2/24

Koda, the 17 story 97 unit condominium building planned for the International District, will be taking reservations this Saturday 2/24 at their Reservation Event in Belltown starting at 11am. A $5,000 deposit will secure a reservation. At the event, preliminary floorplans, specifications, amenities and price ranges will be shared with buyers however those offerings are only preliminary and will not be solidified until the summer of 2018 when reservations will convert to Purchase Contracts.

With plans to break ground this summer, the Koda project will be one of few new construction condo projects to hit Seattle since the recession and certainly the only new construction condo building to break ground in the International District in recent history. Though pricing isn't firmly set yet, they are estimating that the studios will start just under the low $400,000s and will go up to 2 bedrooms around $1.3M, not including parking. The units will be sized from around 435 square feet up to 1200square feet. The amenities are set to include a concierge, gym, yoga room, library, work lounge, conference room, 7th floor terrace, a party room with game tables, theater, kitchen and rooftop terrace.

Other features include mostly in-line kitchens, walls of windows, high ceilings, hardwood flooring, and high-gloss cabinetry. Buyers will be able to choose their color scheme and also opt in on other design upgrades such as natural stone counters, optional islands, window coverings, high-tech features (including audio/visual/security components) and customized closet systems.

The Developer of Koda, Da Li Development, has also mentioned that the company is also looking into purchasing apartment sites and developing them as condos instead. This is an interesting development that could mean more condominiums coming soon to Seattle.

We will be in attendance at the Reservation Event and look forward to learning more about this project and sharing that information with our readers and clients.

By Marco Kronen with Seattle Condo Review: A guide to Seattle downtown condos.

Our New and Improved Seattle Condominium Building Map

Since our blog's inception back in 2006, our Seattle Condo Map has been a place where our readers could go to find information about the various buildings in and around the Downtown Seattle core.

We decided that it was time to revamp SCR's Seattle Condo Map, expanding it to include all buildings in Seattle, to include more detailed information about each building and to create it in a format that allows our readers to search it for information important to them that might not be readily available either online, or within other real estate sites that rely only on information from the MLS.

We are very proud to announce that our new and improved Seattle Condo Map has launched!!!

Our new map contains information about all condominium buildings in the city of Seattle! It is a constant work in progress as condo buildings go through updates, condo buildings become apartment buildings, apartment buildings become condo buildings, new condominium buildings are proposed and new construction buildings are completed. The information contained in our Seattle Condo Map will continue to be updated so please make sure you check back in with the map often. We intend to add links to our Condo Review articles to each building as we review them so our write ups with pros, cons and stats about the building will be available via one click from the map listings. This is something we are actively working on and think will be an amazing resource tool for those looking to buy or sell their condo. 

A couple things to know about our new map:

• There is a directory of buildings that is organized by area - Downtown Area, Northeast Seattle, Northwest Seattle, Queen Anne & Magnolia, South Seattle, Central Seattle and West Seattle
• The buildings are also color coded to denote the following categories - luxury, proposed, under construction, historic or co-op
• You can search the map if you open it up - for example, you can search 'concierge' and see all of the buildings in Seattle with concierge services

Since this map will forever be dynamic, we encourage you, as our readers, to let us know if any buildings are missing or if any of our information is incorrect. We want to do our best to provide the most accurate information we can and we need you all to make that happen!

We hope you find the map interesting and helpful and we hope it is a tool you will bookmark and enjoy using for many years.

Check the map out here! Or from the navigation bar on our website.

Cheers-
Marco and Loren Kronen

Condo Review – Asia Condominiums in the International District

Asia Condominiums in the International District
668 S Lane St

Asia Condominiums was converted from an apartment building into a condominium in 2006. It is located in the International District right across the street from a pocket park. Close to the stadiums, Pioneer Square and in the heart of the ID, the location is vibrant and active. Asia is close to every major transportation hub for buses, light rail, the Sounder, Amtrak, the soon-to-be street car and is super convenient to I-5 and I-90. It is also just a jaunt to both the Mariners and Seahawks stadiums. The building’s aesthetic overall is fairly traditional, and is starting to feel a bit dated, but is still clean, and seems to be well run.

To see a video of an example of an actual unit at Asia Condominiums click here.

The stats:

• 75 units – studio, one and two bedrooms ranging in size from 453 sqft to a 998 sqft
• Built in 2005
• 6 stories
• Most units have a parking space but 13 units do not have parking and there are no storage units
• 4 units have sold in the last 6 months ranging in price from $120,750 (a bank owned unit) to $255,000; at the time of this post there is are not units pending and no active units on the market
• HOA dues include: garbage, water, sewer, building maintenance, professional property manager, earthquake insurance
• Amenities: Party room with full kitchen, gym, terrace pagoda

It's a Seller's Market: Seattle Condo March 2013 Update

I took a look at March 2013 data and pretty much every neighborhood has the same story.  Sales up. Median prices up.  Inventory flat.  

If you were one of those condo investors waiting for the market to pick up to avoid having to have a unit sit on the market too long, your time may have come.  You'll not reap huge windfalls from a pricing point of view but you'll certainly see some action and at a price that's considerably more than you would have gotten a year ago.

In terms of neighborhoods, Belltown/Downtown and Queen Anne/Magnolia both had almost double the units sold in March as they did in Feb but number of listings available was either flat or down versus February.  

 

How Will the New Seattle Tunnel and Removal of the Viaduct Affect Condo Views and Values?

 The Seattle waterfront is undergoing an epic change that will forever change the face of the city from the water’s edge.  That change is the replacement of the aging Alaskan Way Viaduct.  After nearly a decade of debate, deliberation, public comment and vote, as well as even legislative action, the decision was made last year in 2012 to move ahead with the deep bore tunnel option as the replacement method for the two level elevated viaduct that currently runs along the Seattle waterfront.

I am going to do a blog series talking about the good, the bad, and the ugly from the condominium owner and buyer’s perspective with regards to this project.  I’ll hold my opinions until the end of the series, but I want to take you on a photo and map journey through the neighborhoods around the current viaduct that will be most impacted. Hopefully, this series will help bring some clarity and help folks make decisions about where they might want to live if they are looking into buying. Or if you currently own a Seattle condo in the affected areas, if and when you might want to consider selling and moving up to something different, or even staying put and enjoying what is to come.

We will start with where the tunnel is starting and where the viaduct has already partially been removed, which is Pioneer Square and the Stadium District (also called the south portal). This is the area where you see most of the construction going on currently.  What’s happening here?  They have basically temporarily rerouted highway 99 around an area where they are actively digging and constructing the south portal of the tunnel (aka, the Pit). This is where the big boring machine will be starting its dig to the north deep beneath the city.  You can consider this ground zero, where it all starts.

Building Most Likely Affected In:
PIONEER SQUARE & STADIUM DISTRICT

Client Question of the Week: Is the VA Loan Program Available for Condos?

This week, new clients of mine wondered what their options were for a downtown condo that would qualify for the VA loan program. The Department of Veteran Affairs loan program is available to those military veterans and active duty personnel that have accumulated enough service time to be eligible for the favorable terms afforded by this loan program.  Benefits over conventional loan programs include market interest rates, reduced down payment requirements, no monthly mortgage insurance, as well as more flexibility with debt to income ratios and closing costs.

What’s the catch? Condominium buildings must go through the VA's condo project approval process.  Similar to the FHA approval process, an HOA would need to provide supporting documents verifying the eligibility of the condominium community as a whole.  No longer can an individual condo owner seek VA approval if they are either refinancing or selling their condo.  It's all or nothing.  VA looks at things such as overall financial health of the HOA, percentage of rental units, percentage of units that are delinquent on dues, and level of insurance protection, to name a few.  Currently, very few VA approved condominium buildings exist in the downtown core of Seattle.  Newer condo projects in the Downtown, Belltown, Midtown and South Lake Union area especially, lack this VA approval.  So it can be challenging for those wanting to use the VA loan program to find options in our already low inventory market.