Comments on: How Popular Are Long Term Leases?

By: Eric Kennedy

Eric Kennedy — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 03:37:08 +0000

The tenant of that unit is the developer of the building, so it’s no surprise that he gave himself a great long-term lease on the unit.

By: EconE

EconE — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 20:36:38 +0000

Celebrity pied a terre perhaps?

By: Justin

Justin — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 18:24:22 +0000

The giant roof deck is split into three parts. One for each penthouse and the the third is a common area for all residents use. That one is covers the corner of the building along forth ave. and toward union st. Although even with it open to everyone, it is very seldom used.

By: keith

keith — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 05:30:04 +0000

@CVM: I work in the Rainier Tower now and look down on those decks as well, with the same jealousy that you once had. The only thing is, I’ve never seen anyone out on the terrace: morning, day, night, weekday or weekend. There are actually some portable heaters around a table so someone must sit out there occasionally. A phantom millionaire, I suppose.

By: CVM

CVM — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 00:28:13 +0000

Oh, I’m an idiot. Everything I wrote is mentioned in the article Matt linked to.

By: CVM

CVM — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 00:25:03 +0000

I used to work in the Rainier Tower when they just got started renovating the Cobb Building. I saw those penthouse spaces from my cubicle and could only dream…

Wondering why they are apartments and not condos? Unico has a ground lease on the land, which I think is owned by the University of Washington. Unico didn’t want to deal with explaining the ground lease with buyers, so they decided to just go with apartments. Because the large building is already there, it probably made more sense to renovate than to tear it down and build something new. A new building is very expensive and they would lose it eventually anyway. Unico also probably doesn’t pay much for the lease and in the meantime realizes a significant benefit from collecting rents on the apartments and figured the conversion from office to residential made sense given the rents they projected.

(Sorry for that terrible run-on writing.)

By: Matt

Matt — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 23:39:49 +0000

Thanks Justin. Here's an article on the conversion, Historic Cobb Building begins new era as apartments: "Monthly rents range from $925 to $3,200 for most units. The smaller penthouse rents for $7,500 per month. The larger penthouse could rent for up to $16,000 per month, though owner, developer and manager Unico Properties LLC of Seattle won't reveal the precise amount."

By: Justin

Justin — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 22:23:06 +0000

That picture is from the deck of one of the two rental penthouses in the The Cobb building.

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 17:03:45 +0000

Long-term leases are pretty common in commercial realty. I wonder how this lease is actually structured (to an individual, or to a corporate shell)

I haven’t heard about it in residential, except in rent controlled/rent stabilized situations, where there is a de facto long-term lease.