Olive 8 Condo Redux
Starting today, Seattle’s Olive 8 Condo resets with a new sales team, new pricing and a new marketing strategy. Realogics Sotheby’s takes over the reins of Olive 8, the third marketing company to do so, charged with selling the remaining units at the luxury condominium development.
Presently, approximately 50% of the Olive 8’s 229 upsale homes have already been sold, a number of which were through a recent condo auction. The remaining homes are available from level 27 and above.
Julie McAvoy will lead the new sales team. McAvoy previously headed sales at the 2200 and has been involved with Washington Square, Tribeca and the Four Seasons Private Residences.
Olive 8 added a video to its website this morning, hosted by syndicated columnist, Tom Kelly, and features members of the development and marketing team. I normally take what condo marketers say with a grain of salt, but the video does make an valid point about inventory. In respects to “new inventory”, the downtown Seattle condo inventory level is constricting. The lack of new developments have allowed the current slate of buildings to reduce their inventory, and there won’t be another completed condominium building until at least 2014. According to Dean Jones of Realogics Sotheby’s, fewer than 450 new condominiums remain unsold in the city center. So, if you’re looking for a brand new never lived in condo there’s not a lot of choices compared to 2-3 years ago, unless you’re looking at the million dollar plus level.
There are caveats to the above. A white knight could emerge to save the Volta project on First and Bell and buildings like Rollin Street Flats in South Lake Union can easily reconvert to condos, but unlikely given the current rental market.
We should be hearing more about Olive 8’s new pricing shortly…stay tuned.
View available Olive 8 Condo homes for sale.
Disclaimer: Olive 8 / Realogics Sotheby’s is an advertiser of The Seattle Condo Blog at time of publication.
i found the visit a bit shocking. on the one hand, i was under the impression they would be focusing on the new prices and lowering them. the video seems to be laying the case for high prices. sure there’s a lack of new buildings…well that’s because no one wants to buy right now and it’s the worst housing market in what 16 years!?
real curious to see how much they drop them. from the video i get the impression things are going to seem not such a great deal to most of us. hate to sound skeptical, but we’ll have to see what the new pricing actually is…
Good luck to Julie and the Realogics Sotheby’s sales team. They have a BIG job ahead. As limited as availability might be, demand is weak so it is still difficult to believe any large shift will occur. We’ve had this exact scenario play out in Tampa with unsold highrise condos. Many projects were bought at a discount and converted to luxury rental units. If I were a gambler, those are the odds I would take with Olive 8 unless they are willing to slash the price to entice value-conscious purchasers.
@Dave – thank you for your insight, particularly your experience with the Florida market. Olive 8 just reduced priced by an average of 18%; approximately 35% overall since originally offered back in 2007.
While the Seattle condo market does have its challenges, we are fortunate that we weren’t as over built as say Miami, Phoenix, Las Vegas, etc. It’s unlikely (impossible at this point) any of the new Seattle condo buildings will be purchased for conversion with the exception of the Volta. Though, in the past 1-2 years we’ve seen a number of developers switch usage from condos to apartments, effectively reducing inventory by over 600 units. It’s probable that at least one of those may convert back to condos in 2011/12, should the market improve.
I don’t know that I’d say demand is weak, at least in our market. Between 2009 and 2010, the downtown Seattle area realized a 46% increase in condo units sold (297 vs 434)…most were new construction. For 2011, I think we’ll be fortunate if we come close to matching 2010’s sold units.
@Ben, Hopefully it does play out that way. That 46% increase is impressive. I do hope they sell the building to individual owners. It is better for just about everyone when it happens that way. Do you think a 35% reduction since 2007 is enough? Granted, that’s a great deal of money but I wonder if that is going to continue to be enough to keep the increased sales trend alive into 2011. I suppose time will tell.