European Tower Delayed – The Pipeline Is Drying Up!
From the Seattle Times today, Bellevue condo project, European Tower, put on hold:
The developer of 16-story European Tower, a downtown Bellevue project whose design features just one unit on each floor, said Wednesday that it won’t start construction until the market turns around.
Eugene Gershman, chief operating officer of Bellevue-based GIS International Group, attributed the delay to reticence among prospective buyers whose current homes are taking longer to sell.
He said buyers indicated that if construction started now, the tower might be finished sooner than they could close on their units.
Buyers had reserved 6 of 16 units. They make it sound like buyers wanted the delay but that sounds suspect.
Reminder, GIS International Group is the same group behind Stewart + Minor lofts and I find it a little disingenuous that Dean Jones is quoted without disclosing the relationship between his company and Gersham’s other project.
The article does include an update on the Stewart + Minor project:
Last year the firm proposed a 400-foot hotel-condo tower there. But last week, the city Department of Planning and Development approved a 440-foot apartment tower next door. City rules for the area ban towers that tall that close together.
Records show that GIS representatives told a city design-review board in October that the developer would look at reducing its building to 160 feet if the tower next door were approved. But Gershman said nothing has been decided.
Cosmo blog has photos of the apartment building next door.
