I took a hard hat tour of the Leona project this morning. There seemed to be a fair amount of interest in touring the site based on the number of tourers though certainly not the chaotic scenes we used to see back in late 2005 / early 2006. The site is currently gutted out for the most part with orange spray paint on the old wooden floorboards outlining the new units and a few computer generated renderings of how the inside of a couple of the units will appear.
Here are some of my impressions based on the tour:
1.) The 3 town homes to be built attached to the main building may be as interesting if not more to buyers than the condo units.
2.) The location close to the restaurants and shops in both Queen Anne and downtown is probably the best selling point.
3.) The building itself is unlikely to receive any architectural awards but looks like it will be a perfectly fine low-rise, wood/brick structure.
4.) Additional parking might be an issue for some folks since we had to do a bit of hunting to find a spot on a Saturday morning (units will come with 1 spot).
5.) The pricing ~$600 a square foot for the 2BR seemed reasonable. 1BR's can be had for ~$500k (you'll need to contact the sales center for exact pricing).
Sample pricing
Residence 9 Residence 13
1 bd/1.5 ba, 934 sq.ft. 2br + den/ 2ba, 1,425 sq.ft.
$495,000 $850,000
Overall, a nice new building with an even better location and fairly reasonable pricing. If you don't need to be in the heart of Belltown, prefer new to resale unit, and don't need a lot of building amenities, I'd take a look. Completion is projected to be December 2007/January 2008; if you want to play it safe, probably plan on moving in during the first half of 2008.
More info:
Previous post on Leona condos
Leona condos slideshow
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