I have to be honest.  I was a bit surprised, when I saw this.  There is a rental at One Lincoln Tower in Bellevue that just hit the market for $12,500 per month! Apparently, it is not available until February of 2012. It has 3,000 sq ft, with 3 bedrooms and 4 total baths. Features include, granite counters, high-end appliances, built-in espresso, updated baths with heated floors and a work out room.

Just in case you are wondering, this is now the most expensive rental unit* on the market.  The second place finisher goes unit #4103 at One Lincoln Tower. (priced at $8,800 per month). The third highest rent goes to unit #2401 at Escala (priced at $7,500 per month).  I’ve included all three of them below:

1. One Lincoln Tower $12,500

2. One Lincoln Tower $8,800

3. Escala $7,500

*Only includes condos in the downtown Bellevue and Seattle market

Unit #2401 at Escala just hit the market for rent. For a cool $7,500 per month.  Pictures have not been posted, but I can give you a few of the details.  It is 3,562 sf with big views of Downtown, Queen Anne Hill and South Lake Union. It is one of the biggest floor plans in the entire building.  With its own master wing, wet-bar, out-door deck, floor to ceiling windows and a spacious living area.

Other Downtown Condos For Rent

There is big news out of the Escala camp today.  With 51% of their units sold, they reached FannieMae approval.  I’ve included a portion of their announcement below. There are a total of 269 units in the building.

A portion of Escala’s release from this morning:

Why is this important if you’re looking to purchase a home at Escala?

Reduced down payment - in place of 20% buyers now have the potential to put down as little as 5%.

Lending Options - The number of financial institutions providing home loans at Escala will increase and give buyers a broader selection of mortgage possibilities.   

Lower Rates - With additional lending options comes the opportunity to take advantage of the lowest interest rates.

For those of you looking for a rental right now, you may want to check these out.  They both hit the market in the last 24 hours.

1 bed, 1 bath at 1920 4th Ave #704 (Escala):

Private elevator, big views, its own private deck, kitchen, dining and living.  Hardwood floors and wall-bed for guests.  Includes office-nook.  Amenities include elliptical swimming pools, gym, theater room, 24 hour concierge and wine cave.  Pretty cool unit too:

Click here for more details:

Furnished studio at 2033 2nd Ave #904 (Cristalla):

Corner unit on the 9th floor. Good exposure, great building.

Click here for more details:

According to an e-mail that was sent to me this afternoon, the sales team at Escala reached 100 closings.  The e-mail also noted that they are selling an average of 8 units per month with 20 sales under-contract.  If all 20 of their pending sales close, they will have 149 units left to sell. Given their monthly volume that would be an estimated 19 months left until they reach their final closeout.  That puts them into the first quarter of 2013.

It is not very often that a condo rental hits the market at Escala, so when I noticed 1209 this morning I wanted to make sure you guys could see it before the weekend. It is 910sf, has 9.5 ft ceilings, its own private (covered) balcony and big views of Downtown Seattle.  The balcony alone is 136 sf (not included in square footage) and the kitchen features high-end appliances, granite counters and quality cabinetry. As a tenant you have access to all the amenities including the fitness studio, lap pools, yoga/pilates studio, concierge, secured parking, private elevators, separate freight elevator and great access to downtown.

The asking rent is $2,200.  See more details here : Escala Unit 1209

PICTURES OF THE UNIT:

Picture courtesy of Windermere Property Management

Could there really be a new 40 story tower coming to Belltown?

On Thursday May 5th, the Department of Planning and Development granted final design approval for a 400 foot tower located at 2116 4th Ave.  The applicant HAL Real Estate Investments plans to put 365 homes, above 2,743 square feet of retail space. This would also include 329 parking spaces. Seattle’s Weber Thompson Architects designed the building.  This adds to an already impressive resume for the Seattle firm.  Past condo projects include, Cristalla, Madison Tower and 1521 Second.  The entire design proposal can be found here: 2116 4th Ave

Here is a video of the proposed project:

Here is a look at the proposed project looking Southwest.  You can see the Seattle Monorail on 5th to the east of the building.

For those of you curious about how it might change the views of neighboring projects, the biggest impact in my opinion would be on the north facing views of Escala (see above in green).  Keep in mind that there are many variables. We have to assume it will built as they would not be asking Seattle for a conditional approval if they didn’t intend on doing something with the site.  If and when it gets built is an entirely different topic.  As we speak, financing a large condominium high-rise is very tough to come by.  In addition to that, many developers won’t likely take the risk for some time. Time will tell.

See the map here:

View Seattle Condo Map in a larger map

Street view:

View from the Puget Sound:

View from the Space Needle:

Amenity view:

Project: Nautica
Neighborhood: Westlake

DESCRIPTION:

Built in 1992 the Nautica sits on the Westlake slope of Lake Union and Queen Anne. Designed to maximize both Lake Union and Downtown Seattle views, the Nautica features 56 units on 8 floors.  Many of the condos offer a 2 level floor plan making the home feel more like an in-city loft or townhome. Units feature decks, picture windows and spacious floor plans.  Maybe the most attractive feature that the Nautica offers is its 360 degree view deck.  You’ll see Gas Works Park, Lake Union Park, Downtown, the Space Needle and Queen Anne Hill.

SEARCH:

MAP:

View Seattle Condo Map in a larger map

PICTURES:

WALKSCORE:

WESTLAKE CONDOS FOR SALE:

According to the Escala sales team,  in one years time they have sold nearly 90 units.  Closing 76 of them since March 27th.  In addition to announcing their success over the last year, they have added a blogging element to their website See Here.  It looks like they are going to add photos and highlight certain floor plans.  This doesn’t surprise me as I have requested pictures to showcase some of their inventory for weeks.  Apparently they felt it would look better on their site .

Have a great weekend.  Happy condo hunting.

Remember this post from December? Major League Baseball Player Buys Condo At Escala

UrbanCondoSpaces.com broke the story first and in an effort to protect his privacy, we withheld certain information.  With that being said, this young up-and-comer just invited the CSN network of San Francisco to see what life is like in his brand new condominium.  Seeing as though he invited the public into his unit, we felt that it would be fun for you to see what he loves so much about his purchase at Escala!

It’s really pretty cool as he provides an in-depth look into his 3 bedroom 3.5 bath unit.  He highlights what he loves about the unit, shows us where he works out and gives everyone a look at what life is like in Seattle.  As you’ll see from the view, he’ll be enjoying his unit for years to come.  I take special pride in seeing his success as he was a University of Washington Husky during his collegiate years of playing baseball.

I’ve highlighted “general” unit and building information below.  We obviously encourage everyone to respect his privacy if you see him, but in the meantime enjoy this great piece  by CSN SportsNet Reporter Jaymee Sire.  You can follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/jaymeesirecsn.

A special thanks to a friend of mine for originally bringing this piece to my attention.

Units Features:

Northeast facing
3 bedroom
2.5 bath
Private vestibule
Cherry hardwood flooring
Dark zebrano high gloss cabinetry
Slab granite and marble
Huge wrap around deck

Building Features:

24 hour concierge
Spa
Lap pools
World class fitness facility
Media room
Wine cave
Home owners lounge
29 stories
269 homes

Residence “F” Floor Plan

SOURCE: Realogics, Inc.

Do you remember just 2-3 years ago when the Seattle skyline was full of  high-rise construction cranes? That’s not the case anymore.  When it comes to condos, we might not see another project built for 4-5 years.  What does that mean for new construction condo inventory?  Statistically it can be proven that inventory is in decline; here is why:

Let’s examine what the downtown Seattle condo market really looks like. Attached is the graphic provided to UCS (courtesy of Realogics Market Research). Realogics maintains detailed information on the sales of each condominium building.  As you will see in the illustration below, the inventory of newly constructed condominiums is decreasing dramatically.

Clearly the biggest impact on inventory has been the transition of 4 major condo projects to apartments.  These include:

• Expo 62 (114 units in 2008)
• MODA (251 units in 2008)
• Equinox (204 units in 2009)
• Rollin Street (208 units in 2009)
  ****A total of 777 units

The wild card is Volta (formerly known as Alex).  The construction has stopped and at best this could come this year either as condos or as apartments.  For now it has be cited as condos because that’s how it was last presented.  What’s amazing about this situation is that even if it came to market today, we would still have less than 450 new condos to choose from.  From the looks of it, it doesn’t appear that they are doing much with it right now.

In terms of availability by building, from the most to the least, it stacks up like this:

1. Escala
2. Olive 8
3. Gallery
4. Fifteen Twenty-One Second Avenue
5. Enso
6. Volta
7. Four Seasons Private Residences
8. 5th & Madison

Interestingly, two-thirds of the available new condos are in Escala (now 30% sold) and Olive 8 (now 50% sold).  Realogics identifies a unit as being sold as a non-refundable earnest money deposit (pending) or closed.

It is important to note that the title reports are notoriously late with real time information and often show fewer homes sold than actual.

So where does this leave us?  The question becomes, is 450 units or less enough inventory for future demand?  I think not.  As the economy improves, many of those units will be purchased.  I’m sure that eventually Rollin Street and others may come back on the market, but for now, as inventory continues to decline, Seattle may be looking at its next wave of new construction starts in 2012/2013.

It is important to understand that as prices continue to fall, many potential buyers have been renting.  Eventually the increase in rent will drive more consumption of Seattle condominium sales. In addition, what is most fascinating to me is the enormity of going through the construction process. From start to finish it can take up to 5 years.  I will be on the lookout for the first project to break ground.  Until then, as consumers we have about 8 projects to choose from.

Evidently, quite a few of you are interested in the sales progress at Escala.  Since posting this piece (MLB Pitcher Purchases Escala 3 Bedroom) last week, many of you have reached out about the number of units sold.  Well, ask and you shall receive:

There have been 83 sales of which 63 have closed. Only 5 were sold before 3/27/10 when Teambuilder-JLS took over.  According to Erik Mehr, there are 4 or 5 more homes that will close this month.  At a rate of 9-10 sales per month Escala could sellout by the 3rd quarter of 2012.   The question I keep asking is what’s next for new construction condominiums in Seattle?

In my opinion, the market for new construction condos will literally dry-up in 24-36 months (I’ve gone on record before-read here).  At this point in time, I haven’t seen any bullish developers in the marketplace either.  This is not because they don’t want to build, but more importantly they don’t have the means to finance the construction.  Can we assume that simple supply and demand would indicate a shortage of inventory in the Seattle market?

My answer….Yes.

Escala has welcomed one of Major League Baseball’s elite athletes as a new owner.   Out of respect for this indiviual I will not disclose his name and/or other information.  With that being said, he happens to be one of the brightest young stars in professional baseball.

The unit purchased (Residence F)  is over 2,400 square feet with dynamite views.  If you were to add the exterior deck and the private vestibule the unit has a total living square footage of 3,073sf.  It is a 3 bedroom, 2.5 bath with multiple upgrades.

This happens to be my favorite floor plan.  Not only because of the size, but the layout is incredible.  Not to mention the 531sf deck. You can take a look a more pictures on Escala’s website.

Units Features:

• Northeast facing
• 3 bedroom
• 2.5 bath
• Private vestibule
• Cherry hardwood flooring
• Dark zebrano high gloss cabinetry
• Slab granite and marble
• Huge wrap around deck

Building Features:

• 24 hour concierge
• Spa
• Lap pools
• World class fitness facility
• Media room
• Wine cave
• Home owners lounge
• 29 stories
• 269 homes

Residence “F” Floor Plan

According to an update from Escala, they have now closed 50 homes.  They also noted that they have had 80 sales in 6 months.  At 50 closings, that leaves the project with 219 units to go.

I received a note from Escala with the following message:

We are proud to announce that Escala has had 70 sales since our launch five months ago and are quickly approaching 50 closings. That makes Escala one of the most successful condominium projects in the past year!

As you may know, we have made some very important changes to our pricing and homeowner dues. Our “take care of the consumer first” approach is leading the way in the Seattle market. The sales are proof that buyers see real value in Escala.

Not to be forgotten, Fiserv and Moody’s Economy.com see Western Washington as the top spot in the nation for recovering housing values. Seattle is projected to rise 25.5% by 2014. If you missed it, see the full article here.

We know that change is good. Maybe it’s time you made a change too.

For those of you that are unfamiliar with the project, Escala it is a 269 unit tower located at 4th and Virginia.  To learn more, see the buttons below: