Ward’s Cove Enclave on Lake Union – I’m on a Boat!
After work, before hockey, I headed down to Ward’s Cove on Eastlake for the Enclave preview event (“this is not a sales event”). I couldn’t say no to high end urban housing that comes with deep water moorage. They even had some boats (“vessels not boats”) on hand; we kept it real and wore flippie floppies.
What’s the deal with Ward’s Cove? It’s a five-acre site with 1000 feet of frontage in Eastlake. It used to be a fish packing place but I guess the family discovered they were sitting on a gold mine so they closed up shop and developed the land. There’s 12 floating home sites starting in the $700’s and there’s 21 fee-simple residences (they were careful not to call them townhomes even though that’s what I think they are.) The first phase of the residences will be priced in the $1.3 to $1.9 mil range.
How are they building right now!? It’s a three phase project. The developer, Trinity, has acquired land for just the first phase (they spent two years looking for the right lot and think this is a once in a lifetime development opporunity) and will build them as they sell them. They like to refer to it as horizontal building. So that instead of building from the ground up, they’re building from south to north. They expect to get the finally permitting by October and start construction then. Phase one will take 12 months to build. They’re also very excited about the low construction costs right now which they save have come down 25-40%. For the first phase they’re going to pass all the savings onto the buyers.
Are people really interested? There were about forty to fifty buyers at the event and they already have five reservations and one of them is for two units. Questions from the audience were centered on the views and the fee-simple nature. Turns out dues will be $180-400 depending on if moorage is rolled in or not. It includes landscaping.This isn’t a condo so each home owner will be responsible for their own maintenance, etc.
Good for boaters. The place really is attractive to boaters as there’s deep water moorage for boats up to 110 feet. If you’d prefer to store your boat on land they’ll have a tender so you can zip over to the dry stacks at Seattle Boat Co (they’re pricey though) or they’ll valet your boat over. And if you can’t afford a multi-million dollar townhome and a boat you can enjoy the “theater of the waterway”.
Good marketing. Realogics is good at marketing. They had nice shiny brochures, a combo of 30 foot boat and 60 foot yacht from the Seattle Boat Co., plants in the audience asking strategic questions, and had a neighbor, from a townhome development down the street, gush about how great Eastlake is.
Bottom line. Assuming these things look good, I’d buy here before the Four Seasons, 1521, Enso or Escala! But I’m a sucker for boats (thankfully sold my 23′ MasterCraft last spring before the bottom fell out of the market!)
I’ll try and scan the brochures tomorrow… I’m too lazy to type up the 100 features they list.
