Seattle condo craze

You may have seen this picture in a recent edition of the Seattle PI. It would be an understatment to say that the downtown skyline is changing dramatically.

Troy and I were recently invited to a presentation on Paul Allen and Vulcan Real Estate's latest developments in the so-called "South Lake Union" neighborhood of downtown Seattle.

SLU. Hmmmm...

I guess I could get used to saying that. I never thought I could say "Sodo" with a straight face, and now it just rolls off the tongue.

Anyway, the projects we saw are pretty darned impressive. The "2200", scheduled for occupancy this fall, is a mixed use development with 261 condos (all sold out, by the way) as well as retail (a huge Whole Foods Market!) and office space. And a world-class hotel (The Pan Pacific). Condo owners can even get room service. And maid service. It sounds like heaven to me.

We took a look at three new projects (a virtual look, that is; right now the buildings are just a gleam in Paul's eye). They are the Rollin Street Flats (flats - how continental!), Veer (lofts - how urban, how chic, how relativly cheap!), and the Enso (ahhhh...my favorite.) All of the condos will be sold via a lottery process. For info on this, give us a call at 206.463.5478. For virtual tours, check out these websites:

www.rollinstreet.com
www.veerlofts.com (how do they do that virtual paint trick???)
www.ensoliving.com

To get a more general idea of what Vulcan is up to, go to www.vulcanrealestate.com. What they are doing is actually pretty cool. If the Growth Management Act says we should live in the cities, then the developers have my full support in making the cities liveable.