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

Condo Project Coming to South Lake Union

A new condominium building has been announced in South Lake Union. It will be a mid-rise building and will be located at 1170 Republican St, where the charming Row House Cafe is currently located.

This new building will contain 113 condominium units and should start construction in early 2019.

The developer for this new project is Plus Capital Partners, who recently sold their controlling interest in the Elev8 project n Bellevue.

Rendering from MZA Architecture.

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

Downtown Seattle Area LID Assessment Information

We have received a ton of questions about the potential local improvement district (LID) assessment for the waterfront improvements that would affect some property owners in Downtown Seattle, Belltown and South Lake Union.

Since we live in the boundaries of the LID we received additional information on the proposed assessment and thought we would summarize what we know for our readers:

• The Seattle City Council passed a Resolution declaring their intent to initiate the formation of the LID to construct certain elements of the Waterfront Seattle Program
• The LID is a funding tool by which property owners are assessed to help fund the costs of a public improvement that they benefit from by way of a increased property value due to the improvement (special benefit)
• The LID assessment cannot exceed the property's total special benefit
• The LID only pays for a portion of the Waterfront improvements
• It is the city's intent that the LID shall be a one-time assessment and shall not include any future supplemental assessments
• There are still public hearings you can attend where you can submit your public comments in support of or objecting to the LID
• The preliminary assessment percentage is 48.23% of the estimated special benefit of the LID improvements for each specific property
• For example:
  • Our estimated special benefit of LID improvements to our condo: $823.50
  • Our estimated assessment for our condo: $397.14

What we heard from our readers and neighbors, who own residential property in the LID boundary, was that they anticipated having to be thousands, if not tens of thousands, of dollars for their LID assessment. This was causing a bit of panic for people and causing several of those concerned to sell or consider selling their properties to avoid having to pay the LID assessment. We were also hearing concerns voiced from potential buyers that they didn't want to buy a condo within the boundary of the LID not knowing what they would be on the hook for in terms of this LID assessment amount.

I would think that this information will help quell people's fears a bit as it is much less than we heard most people were anticipating. Hopefully this news, and the Head Tax being squashed, will help the Downtown area condo market to heat back up and maybe open the dam a bit on the buyers who were sitting on the sidelines fearing the Head Tax and LID assessment repercussions.

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

NEXUS Pre-sale Opportunities End 6/30

The NEXUS model home and presentation center will be closing on June 30th and all pre-sale opportunities will stop at the time of the presentation center closure.

If you are considering purchasing at NEXUS now might be the time to do it so you can benefit from the pre-sale price offerings, still select your interior color palette and receive a $25,000 buyer decorator allowance, which they are throwing in from now through June 30th.

At this time, NEXUS is 90% sold and the available options are 2 and 3 bedroom floor plans, ranging in size from 1,022 to 2,142, and priced from $1.2 million to $3.5 million.

Here is the current availability:

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

New Towers at 1916 Boren Ave in Denny Triangle

Soon, at 1916 Boren Ave, a two tower project will rise comprising of a hotel and residential units. The developer, GZI out of China, has not yet revealed if the residential portion of the project will be apartments or condos.

The project, designed by Gensler Architects, will have two towers out of one podium, one tower at 16 stories and one at 48 stories. The podium will have retail on the ground level with 9 levels of hotel above to include approximately 280 hotel rooms. In the smaller tower will rise 6 stories of residential over the hotel and then in the taller tower will be 38 stories of residential over the hotel, to include around 500 units. There will also be two amenity levels, to include a gym and a podium-top roof deck, and underground parking. The taller tower will twist by stepping out from the base over the shorter tower and then stepping back in on the opposite side of the tower at the top, changing the massing as it goes up. This design is intended to compliment the twisting cubes of the NEXUS condominium tower nearby and add interest to the skyline.

At this point, we will have to wait to see whether or not we will have more apartments entering the pipeline or more condominiums for sale with the addition of this new project.

Rendering courtesy of Gensler.

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

Encore Sales Release Event at Nexus - Condos from Mid $500s

NEXUS has just announced that they are having an Encore Sales Event this weekend on Saturday November 18th from 11am to 5pm, which will debut 16 newly released city suites priced from the mid-$500's. If you were one of those folks who missed out on a studio or urban one bedroom at NEXUS, this is your opportunity.

Where did these newly released units come from? Well, after analyzing market demand, the project team has reconfigured the floor plates on floors 28 to 35, in the "third cube", so that where 8 larger one-bedroom plus den condos once were, there will now be 16 smaller city suites. Each of the 8 larger one-bedrooms will now be two independent units, one a 484 square foot studio and one a 503 square foot open one bedroom. The newly released homes will be priced from the mid-$500,000s to the mid-$600,000s, a price range that was previously sold out at NEXUS.

Some details to note about the Sales Event:

• The sales will be first-come first-serve - doors open at 11am
• Buyers will enter into a contract and provide a 5% earnest money deposit to secure the condo they want to purchase
• They have decided to not allow any further investor purchases for the new release of these 16 units and will be requiring all buyers to sign the purchase and sale agreement indicating they are buying as a primary residence or as a second home

Click here to see a video from the sales team just explaining the new release.

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

Tower on Shilla Site is Now Called The 8 Tower

The tower we wrote about back in May, that will be constructed on the small triangle lot between 8th Ave, Bell St and Denny Way where Shilla Restaurant once operated, will now be called The 8 Tower.

According to PSBJ, the tower will also now be taller and contain more units. It will rise to 42 stories and have 312 residential units. There will be open 1 bedroom, 1 bedroom and 2 bedroom units. Only 72 parking spaces will be provided. There will be retail/commercial space on the street level. Amenities for the building will be located on the 2nd floor and on the rooftop and will include a lounge, outdoor terrace and a dog run.

It is still undecided whether or not the building will be apartments or condos. This will apparently be determined by the investors that end up signing on with the project. Stay tuned.

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

Rendering by Caron Architecture

Potential New Condo Building Coming to South Lake Union

According to the Puget Sound Business Journal, the Developer of the lot in South Lake Union where Shilla Restaurant sits at 2300 8th Ave, will be developed as condominiums, at least that is the plan for now. The small triangular lot across from Denny Park is being developed by Bellevue-based North American Seattle Development LLC, which is affiliated with a company out of China.

The building will be 39 stories with 286 residential units. The plan today is to build condos but the developer is keeping their options open to see how the market is looking closer to the time when they will begin construction on the project, which is currently unknown and dependent on when the city approves their master use permit. The estimation is that the earliest they could start construction would be summer of 2018.

Rendering: Caron architecture firm

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

Wondering What All the Cranes Are Building Downtown?

Our readers often ask us how many of the cranes out there are building condominiums in Downtown, First Hill, South Lake Union, Pioneer Square and Belltown. Most people assume there are many condominium buildings taking shape under those construction cranes but believe it or not, only three cranes will belong to condo buildings. One is for Gridiron, the building located next to the stadiums, which is in full swing. NEXUS is another one and the last one is 1631 2nd Avenue (though technically neither of their cranes have even been erected yet). There is also the outlier of Hendon, being constructed in Phinney Ridge.

The other cranes are building hotels, apartments, office space, biotech space or some combination of those uses.

If you are ever curious about what the cranes are constructing, check out the Puget Sound Business Journal's handy tool, the Crane Watch here.

Hopefully this helps answer the burning question of "what are all those cranes building?".

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

NEXUS Ground Breaking

NEXUS condominiums had their ground breaking ceremony this morning. Present were representatives from Burrard Group who is the Developer on the project, Weber Thompson who is the architect, interior designer and landscape architect for the project, Realogic's Sotheby's International Realty who is the marketing and sales team, a representative from the DSA and Skanska who is the contractor.

They announced that they will open for public sales at 11am sharp on Saturday March 18th at their new sales center. They also indicated that they have listed several of the condominium units for sale on the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, though at the time of this post only one was live on the market.

The ideas and inspirations that were mentioned at the ground breaking were the desire to create a new neighborhood within Downtown Seattle and to build the condos where walkability, transportation and proximity to job centers are key. Also noted was the want to incorporate innovative technology into the building, provide flexible floorplans, implement sustainable living ideas, and put forward a design that was not run of the mill.  They are now calling the Denny Triangle, the neighborhood where NEXUS will be located, the East Village.

We will attend the VIP Reception this evening and report back on any additional information we learn about NEXUS and the sales process.

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