Urban Living Meetup Wrap “That’s An Awesome Plan…”

Last Wednesday night, Matt and I squeezed into the Olive 8 penthouse with 40 others to talk real estate at our Urban Living Meetup. (Just kidding, there was nothing cramped about that place with its 3-bedrooms, 3.5 baths, and 4,315 square feet.)

So to start things off — a big thank you to everyone who attended! We had a great time visiting with our regulars, many new faces, and our sponsors. The presentation from William Justen was definitely a highlight. And those who generously brought their own ‘nog contributed some excellent vintage (I know I heard more than one comment about the tasty wine).

So what were we all abuzz about? Here’s a quick rundown of topics we encountered:

• What do you think of the recently released design for the south tower in the North lot?
• What’s the average $/sf that a builder puts into constructing a townhouse these days anyways? The only thing we’ve touched on before has been condo cost to build.
• What’s with units at Lumen selling for such low prices per square foot?
• So you bought at Escala? How’s that working out? Seriously, you’ve never run into Tim Lincecum?
• This Olive 8 penthouse is how much? (Penthouse 1 is 4,315 square feet for $5.75M)
• So many apartments are coming! When do you think we’ll see the first apartment conversion to condo?
• Malden 8 is the hottest townhouse project on the Hill with a number of attendees chatting about it. We also just got word yesterday that there are a number of offers in already, many with escalation clauses.

And then William Justen gave us a whole lot of food for thought with his presentation (so much so that we’re going to have to do a separate post on all the things we learned).

In short, the planning for the new Seattle Waterfront is in Phase 1 and we were treated to a look at their current design concept which was developed by James Corner Field Operations (best known for the highly acclaimed High Line Project in New York City). We also got a rundown of the committee’s activities this past year (several public reviews of design concepts), what to expect next year (narrowing of focus, more reviews), and addressed more long term questions like when it will get built (it’ll be a few years) or where the funding comes from (still figuring that out). But mostly William encouraged us to learn more and get involved — both can be done at waterfrontseattle.org.

So yeah, lots of great conversations, a look at an awesome plan, and Realogics opened up all three penthouses for us to tour through. Our thanks go out to Realogics for providing the venue and eats (especially Sam Cunningham for kick-starting the arrangements, Julie McAvoy who took care of the details, and Dean Jones for keeping us all on the same page). Special thanks to William Justen for a great introduction to the Seattle Waterfront project and to Kristin (and Chickpea Charity) for donating prizes.

And one last note: we’re aiming to do our next meetup in February so have a great holiday and, most of all, keep on reading!