Thanks to a reader for pointing me to the Seattle PI, Lease wins out over condo plans at Qwest Building site:
The developers filed plans with the city in August to replace the 53-year-old building with two 28-story condo towers, but decided not to build because they had concerns about the current market and found a tenant to lease the entire building for more than 10 years, Wilson said Monday.
And,
“I think in the near term you’re going to see more properties that are slated for condos not become condos,” he said. “The people that are already out of the ground are certainly going to complete their projects. I think the people in the early planning stages may not move forward.”
Scary stuff. What other projects are at risk?
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2 responses so far ↓
1 k // Sep 20, 2006 at 12:46 pm
There are definitely others we’ve seen in the very conceptual stages that may not be moving forward… But we’ll see how it plays out once the current condo boom gets built.
2 cricket // Sep 21, 2006 at 4:12 pm
It always starts with building projects run by “jonny come lately” developers. Those people have the fewest resources and often the worst lot to build on to begin with.
I won’t be surprised if other planned projects never make it off the ground, outside of the ones Paul Allen (deep pocketed) and the ultra-luxury crew (Four Seasons, 2nd and Pine, etc.) are building.
That said, if the Fed lowers rates, look for some of these projects to get built anyway - takes 2-3 years for these places to get built, by which time we’ll probably be out of a downturn. The commercial developers are still kicking themselves for stopping all office construction back in 2000 (leading to an extreme shortage today).
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