The Seattle Condo Blog

Another Belltown condo project
The Schuster Group, developer of Mosler Lofts, purchased the site just south of the Bellora at Cedar and Elliott, according to the DJC. Earlier proposals for the site included a mid-rise apartment and condo projects. At one point one of the proposed projects was called “Bellora 2″.

Schuster’s current plans for the site is a “green” condo project which is zoned to 125′ for residential buildings. No time frame has been provided.

Insignia Towers
The DJC also reported that construction of the Insignia Towers project at 5th between Bell & Battery has been postponed, possibly until 2009. Insignia’s developer, Embassy Development, attributed the sluggish market for their decision.

Escala
As was widely reported earlier this week, Escala announced they’re increasing the prices of their remaining inventory. While the overall adjustment reflects a net increase, sources indicate that they also reduced prices on some of the units the east side of the building.

Olive 8 held a hard hat tour event at the construction site today to show off the building’s progress (I had a prior commitment and was unable to attend). Fortunately, Megan Hilfer of Parsons PR, was kind enough to share a few photos from the event which I’ve posted below.

When completed, Olive 8 will be the tallest residential tower in Seattle and the first condo/hotel development in Seattle to achieve LEED certification. The Hyatt hotel is expected to open at the end of the year while the first occupancy of the condominium is anticipated for early 2009.

View photos (click image below):

There’s a new look for the Heron/Pagoda project at 5th Avenue between Virginia and Stewart Streets in downtown. The most current renderings indicate a twin-tower design, which interestingly enough, will be directly across from the Westin Hotel’s twin-towers.

Between the Westin & Escala (foreground)

Note: A 2nd design guidance meeting has been scheduled for this project on February 12th at 7:00 PM at Seattle City Hall.

It seems Seattle will be awash with double vision in the coming years. Besides the Heron/Pagoda project, at least four other twin-tower projects have been proposed in the downtown area — Insignia Towers, 1200 Stewart, 2nd & Virginia and the Pike Street Group’s project at 6th & Lenora.

SeattlePI article: Hotel-condo project to face Westin

Renderings courtesy of Ismael Leyva Architects.

The Seattle PI noted the trend of renaming the city’s neighborhoods. Midtown, West Edge, Gateway…where did they come from?

“I don’t know who they have in charge of that,” Jewell said. “They probably just have one dude sitting behind a desk who’s like, ‘Hmm, what should we call that?’ ”

Lately, that would be condo marketer extraordinaire Dean Jones, president of Realogics Inc., which represents dozens of developments. He popularized the Midtown moniker [see Escala Midtown] — at least among real estate agents — and has invented other would-be downtown micro-neighborhood names.

Midtown was intended to define the geographic area at the convergence of other distinct neighborhoods, such as the downtown retail district, Belltown, Pike Place Market and South Lake Union.

It may catch on, or not, but it’s a lot likelier that you’ll be able to find someone if you plan to meet at the Midtown Starbucks rather than the downtown Starbucks, he said.

And, several SCL readers called me out on the use of the Midtown moniker.

On the other hand…

Belltown Community Council President Zander Batchelder predicted that most micro-neighborhood names won’t stick around any longer than their brochures stay out of the recycling bin.

“They spend a lot of advertising on it, but I don’t think it’s going to take,” he said. “You have to have a majority consensus for that to take off, and the other people who already live here aren’t going to rename it just so (marketers) can make more money on the condos.”

The old Teatro Zinzanni block between 5th & 6th Avenues and Battery & Bell has been sold to Embassy Development of Vancouver, BC. Though this isn’t exactly earth shattering news, it does express a commitment by Embassy to develop the site.

The proposed development, called Insignia Towers Condominium (website), is big – encompassing two 41-story condominium towers with 643 units. Construction on the first tower is expected to begin next spring with a 2010 completion date. The second tower is expected to start around spring 2009. Each tower will have a lengthy construction timeline – 29 months.

Interesting quote from the developer in the DJC: “Most of the condos will be two-bedroom or two-bedroom with dens. Prices in the first tower will start at $750 a square foot, and are intended to be affordable to downtown workers making a ‘decent wage.’ “

Since when is $750/sf considered affordable. What exactly is a decent wage for downtown workers?

The Lexas Companies has proposed a large two-building residential project at the edge of Denny Triangle at 1200 Stewart Street. The plan calls for two 36-story towers with 500 residential units, 55,000 square feet of commercial/retail space and 800 below-grade parking stalls. The developer has not yet determined whether the project will be built as apartments or condos.

An early design guidance meeting has been scheduled for September 25th at 5:30 PM at Seattle City Hall, room L280.

Lexas Companies is currently developing the upscale Escala condominium project at 4th & Virginia. The architect for the project is Thoryk Architecture who designed Escala.

Here’s a useful map of new buildings in the downtown area.

Click here for larger image.

From the Puget Sound Journal’s State of Downtown insert.