A word of caution to anyone thinking of buying a Gamel or Mastro or worse combination building of the two. Save yourself the grief and expense of not knowing if you will be able to live in your building safely and or ever be able to sell your unit. DO NOT BUY INTO THEIR BUILDINGS! PlEASE SAVE YOURSELF THE HEADACHE!

They allowed too many investors to rent and or lease their units. So we have way too many renters here. Hopefully that will be fixed soon.
Work that was supposed to be completed is still sitting waiting to be done correctly.
The Gamel girls are nice to a point but once you ask too many questions or insist on unit inspections etc they become very rude. Slamming the phone down on you rude.

When you walk their building you are taken in by what looks like a great product. But look very hard at the quality of the of the materials that are in the units. Then walk the rest of the building and see if the pipes run straight in the building. Are there any odd holes in the walls, large cracks in places that should not have them, flaws in the glass, etc. Seriously, look at the whole building because you are buying into it and it’s issues become your problem. Don’t count on Mastro or Gamel to come and fix problems. They want to get out fast and leave you holding the bag.

Barry – so far, I haven’t heard anything. Unlike other Gamel projects, this was new construction with Mastro behind it as well.

He never paved the roads, or finsihed the parking lots and left the pools rusting and the tennis courts in disrepair. Not to mention leaking roofs, missing leaders & gutters, a 50 year old boiler and no air condtioning in the common areas.

He did provide lots of bagles, coffee and cake before sneaking out in the middle of the night.

I agree, the HOA dues are ridiculous. However, I look at it as being 7 min tops from Belltown. Once you are on Aurora, there is two lights till Greenlake and it’s a straight shot with no lights. That’s pretty sweet.

Although it’s no Belltown certainly, and not a freemont of ballard, (and it’s close to those as well), it is going to go through more changes. So as far as the “view of fred myers, etc”, the owners of the University Village own that and from numerous sources are apparently going to renovate it. That just means the property of my condo will go up.

Some people act as though this view and supposed sirens are the achilles heal. I never heard any sirens, and I haven’t heard anyone talking about loud busses either, so…. Furthermore, part of looking for a good investment is buying something in a location that will appreciate in the years to come. Of course it’s not the “greatest” neighborhood, if it was, I would have paid 600K and not 344K for a 2/2 Duh.

Gergorio – I was just there a few days ago and that corner is still unfinished. I’m surprised it’s taken so long…as a seller/developer I’d be concerned that it’ll take away from the appeal of the project.