Seattle Condo Review: Blog with News & Advice about Seattle Condos

AVA Update

AVA, a downtown hotel/condo project, has received their Master Use Development Permit and is anticipating construction to commerce this fall. The sales center, located at the corner of Olive Way and 8th Ave, will be open to homebuyers by appointment only beginning next month. A large scale model of the tower, interior model vignettes of the kitchen and bathroom, final floor plans, views, finishes and other exhibits will be available for homebuyers to preview as well. To make a reservation, a $10,000 refundable deposit will be required. The reservations provide homebuyers the first right of opportunity to purchase the home within a provided price range. If you are interested in my opinion on this project, check out my previous review here.

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8th and Pine
AVA Condos

-Wendy

1 Hotel Residences Redesign

Several projects in the Belltown and downtown area are either on hold or converted to apartments. 1 Hotel Residences on the other hand is undergoing a redesign. The proposed redesign will eliminate 132 of the project's 176 individually owned condo-hotel suites. They will be replaced with 192 smaller, conventional hotel rooms (level 9th-14th). The heavily marketed City suites units will be located on the 15th and 16th level. The residential condominium units on the higher floors will not be affected. Read more.

-Wendy

1913 Fifth Ave: Billion Dollar "Out There" Hotel Condo

It seems like yesterday that the hotel-condo concepts imported from more trend-setting condo cities were still testing the waters here in Seattle.  Based on the new 1.2M square foot project set to break ground next year, it would appear hotel condos are here to stay.

Some highlights from this new project:

• *Located across from Westin (current residents include the Icon Grill and Avis)
• *High-end hotel (185-200 rooms), retail, office, and 22 floors of condos (400-500 condos)

*Twin, 43 story towers (North Tower-Pagoda, South Tower-Heron)

*Wind and solar will provide 7% of the building's electricity

*7 underground floors of parking

*Design that says Seattle looks not toward Vancouver but toward Chicago and New York.  (Personally, I find it a lot to take in and a bit Robocop as far as first impressions goes but that may be due to the lack of color in the rendering.)

The project is still in the early design guidance phase. Additional information will be presented, and public comments taken, at 7 p.m. Tuesday in Room L280 at City Hall.

More info from the PI article here.

-Wendy

Seattle's Best Looking New project

Fifteen Twenty One               Escala                             AVA

        1 Hotel                        Olive 8                      Four Seasons

 

AVA Sneak Preview Event

Recently, there has been alot of buzz about hotel/condo projects, the most recent project is AVA. AVA had their sneak preview sessions last week. The events were so well received that they are scheduling the 2nd series of sneak preview events for Oct 2nd, 3rd and 4th.

During the events, an hour of presentation was given by Blaine Weber, Principal architect for Weber + Thompson. Among a number of other things, Blaine talked about the location of AVA relative to the neighborhood buildings.

• To the north side of AVA is a high end apartment building, Olivian Tower currently under construction.
• Across the street from AVA is Olive 8, another luxury hotel/condo project scheduled for completion in late 2008 -- about the same height as AVA.
• To the east of AVA is a historic building, the Camlin Hotel.

With the transit terminal right below the huge lot to the east, they are unlikely to obstruct the views of AVA's east-facing units.