I stopped by the 1521 grand opening this morning. Lots of people were there for the opening, including Seattle mayor, Greg Nickels as well as many of the people involved in the project, William Justen, Susan Marinello, Blaine Weber, Dean Jones,… One couple pulled up in their Maserati just as things got started.
The first speech I caught was William Justen who talked about how this will be the 10th place he’ll have lived in downtown. I did find it funny that he quoted the same NYT article that mocked Seattle condos. He also talked about the community they’re building amongst home owners which started with going to the ACT theater together with wine and cheese beforehand.
Some facts:
- 38 story, 440-foot tower
- 143 residences
- First under the new slender building code
- LEED Silver
- Had 300 to 500 people on site building the thing
- Approximately 750,000 man hours to building
- Opus is providing $1.88 million to the city’s affordable housing fund
- 96% pre-sold
- Move-ins start next week
- Sales center opens mid-January
I’d love to get inside 1521 so if any of you are homeowners I’ll gladly exchange a housewarming present for a tour. Until then, all I can really say is that I like how it looks from the inside. Certainly looks better from the outside than the Four Seasons.
View all the photos including professional photos from 1521 of the lobby. Here are the official grand opening photos.
Popularity: 15% [?]
39 responses so far ↓
1 EconE // Nov 24, 2008 at 3:10 pm
So if 96% of the units are sold that leaves 6 left.
Color me confused. A sales center opening in January to sell six units?
2 DT // Nov 24, 2008 at 3:18 pm
Pre-sold doesn’t mean sold. With the credit crunch, a large percentage of folks who put down a few thousand will now be unable to raise financing.
I’d be surprised if it was more than 50% occupied by January.
3 DT // Nov 24, 2008 at 3:34 pm
Is it my imagination or have they improved the design of the lower four floors (the parking area)?
I remember disliking the design when it was under construction but in these photo’s it looks a lot better.
4 The MD // Nov 24, 2008 at 4:50 pm
There’s already 9 listed on the MLS for sale. Believe me, this building is not 96% sold. It isn’t sold until its closed. People are already looking at walking away.
5 ADS // Nov 24, 2008 at 10:25 pm
This has been my favorite project in Seattle, glad it came out nice. Too bad I can’t afford it.
6 Matthew // Nov 24, 2008 at 10:34 pm
By far and away my favorite project in Seattle. I walk by it every day and it looks amazing from the outside.
7 christiangustafson // Nov 25, 2008 at 1:00 am
I can’t stand this garish building. The debt-addled speculators will flee for the hills, and it will fail hard just like similar projects in Miami.
Seattle will look like this in a few years.
8 Chris // Nov 25, 2008 at 7:11 am
I LOVE this building, but it’s just a wee bit expensive.
9 Gabe Grant // Nov 25, 2008 at 9:30 am
The 1521 tower, along with Cristalla and Madison Tower, are some of Seattle’s most attractive (and best selling) condo towers. Congratulations to Weber Thompson! I expect more great Weber Thompson designed buildings to add to the Seattle skyline in the years ahead.
10 Bubbles // Nov 25, 2008 at 9:47 am
A relative of mine looked at buying into this building — the mock up model unit they had for a while was amusing. The big reason she decided not to buy here was that for what they were charging, there wasn’t much flexibility in interior finishes. You HAD to take carpet even if you wanted all hardwood floors, and the kitchen appliances are so custom to the kitchen that if you want to replace them with something else, you’ll have to redo half of your cabinets.
11 Downtown Guy // Nov 25, 2008 at 11:18 am
The building is not very pleasing to the eye. The neighborhood is quite sketchy at best. Oh, and I just love the Needle Exchange immediately next door to the front entrance (that’s an especially nice touch). When are we ever going to learn in this city? If you want something to be nice, that it is more than just the sum of its own parts. Its an aggregated collection of everything around it, including buildings, parks, neighborhood, and everyone near it.
12 ADS // Nov 25, 2008 at 1:03 pm
It takes time for a whole neighborhood to change. Back 20-30 years ago, people didn’t want to live in New York’s meat packing district, now it’s one of the most expensive areas in Manhattan.
13 Matthew // Nov 25, 2008 at 1:17 pm
ADS,
That’s also because NYPD is allowed to do their jobs and clean out the undesirables. In Seattle we are concerned about hurting people’s feelings.
14 CameronRex // Nov 25, 2008 at 1:22 pm
I like it but a buyer is definitely betting the surrounding area improves because it is very sketchy, especially at night.
15 jo // Nov 25, 2008 at 4:02 pm
What I love about Seattle is while that looking at a Grand Opening picture as in your main post, you can see two people wearing North Face jackets.
16 Matt the Engineer // Nov 25, 2008 at 4:26 pm
[Matthew] To take a closer example, how about Pioneer Square? That place went from a rundown mess to a tourist attraction.
2nd and Pike is right on the edge of nice areas. It shouldn’t be tough to push the boundary a few blocks further out. What they need now are some storefronts, and sidewalk cafes. Then you might even connect the downtown shopping areas to Belltown. Considering Pike’s market makes this a tourist area already, it’s too bad there are spots that are currently run down.
17 Matthew // Nov 25, 2008 at 8:14 pm
Pioneer square a tourist attraction? More like bum city! Pioneer square is a dump!
18 The MD // Nov 25, 2008 at 8:30 pm
Pioneer Square is N A S T Y
19 christiangustafson // Nov 25, 2008 at 8:37 pm
As a happy, debt-free renter I have had the pleasure of living downtown (1st & Stewart) and in Pioneer Square (2nd & Washington).
Pioneer Square was much worse after dark, with the bums and the ghetto club crowd.
20 onehoonose // Nov 25, 2008 at 11:52 pm
I live in the neighborhood, & I think this building is stunning. This is a great alternative to urban sprawl, & when you choose to live in an urban setting you accept some interaction with people of different lifestyles & social positions. To create 143 single family homes of this price point would take up 143 acres of forest, parks or farm land. I applaud Mayor Nickels for his vision & this team of developers & designers for having the guts to take this on & the initiative to push the package.
21 BlueSkyGuy // Nov 26, 2008 at 1:37 am
Disclaimer: not sure I can afford it but I am thinking about buying a unit in this project, therefore, take everything I say with a grain of salt.
eCON - I think they said the sales center is CLOSING, not opening. Why would they need a sales center with most of the units sold?
DT - You are probably right, it wont be 50% occupied by January [effectively, only a month away from now] if the first residents move in next week. These buildings only get occupied at about one floor per week - do the math, dude.
This is an amazing location and my guess is that the neighborhood will clean up quickly with HardRock coming right behind this project, to be built on the same block. Its an edgy location, right in the heart of city life …definitely not sanitized like Bellevue. But I think that is part of the reason that I like it. It feels real, like Seattle.
22 Affluent Bitter Renter // Nov 26, 2008 at 10:45 am
BlueSkyGuy on Nov. 20 at 5:41 PM in the Alex going condo thread:
“I sold all my real estate in the last couple of years and now I am starting to buy properties with extraordinary locations / views “on sale”. ”
Huh - and now you aren’t sure that you can afford a unit at 1521? If you “sold all [your] real estate in the last couple of years”, aren’t you rolling in money? You can’t have spent it all already - you stated that you were just starting to buy new RE properties.
Again, hmmm….
(I’d also note that Urban Edginess gets really old, really fast - probably until the first time you are mugged or someone gets shot outside your residence.)
23 EconE // Nov 26, 2008 at 12:06 pm
BSG…
If you use your reading comprehension skills, you will see that in Matt’s post…under the “some facts” section it quite simply states…
“Sales center opens mid-January”
And if a “Hard Rock Cafe” is something that gives you a woody…well…
more power to ya!
Welcome to the 80’s Seattle!
24 WTF // Nov 26, 2008 at 12:27 pm
@Affluent Bitter Renter:
“(I’d also note that Urban Edginess gets really old, really fast - probably until the first time you are mugged or someone gets shot outside your residence.)”
Then don’t live downtown?
25 Matthew // Nov 26, 2008 at 1:03 pm
Someone got shot directly outside of my window in Belltown a while back, absolutely no mention of it in the media. The crime is much worse in the area than what is being reported.
26 Matthew // Nov 26, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Is the name “BlueSkyGuy” a play off of the “Blue Skies” song that was popular in the roaring 20’s just before the market crash in 1929?
Apparently that was the theme song of the 1920’s..
Blue skies,
smiling at me,
Nothing but blue skies,
Do I see
Seems fitting.
27 Affluent Bitter Renter // Nov 26, 2008 at 1:16 pm
“Matthew // Nov 26, 2008 at 1:03 pm
Someone got shot directly outside of my window in Belltown a while back, absolutely no mention of it in the media. The crime is much worse in the area than what is being reported.”
I’d note that the recession is likely to make the crime situation in Belltown worse.
It is amusing to see people justify living in a crime-ridden “gritty” area as an **advantage**, as an edgy Hipsters Bizzaro-universe Disneyland. “Look, a pimp! Look, somebody shooting up! Aren’t I cutting-edge and transgressive for living here!”
I’ve lived in some sketchy neighborhoods, but that’s because they were **cheap** to live in. I never thought that their sketchiness was a particular sales point (particularly when considering the purchase of an expensive condo).
28 WTF // Nov 26, 2008 at 1:30 pm
@Matthew:
I agree that crime downtown is bad, but show me a decent size city with a suburb level crime rate and I’ll show you a horse with wings.
By moving to a downtown location, I would think that these were risks that one would be willing to take, or at least would have done their due diligence and researched what crime was like in that area before moving there. I have no sympathy for those that complain about Belltown (or any other seattle neighborhood for that matter), it has been like that for years. As Denny Green would say, “Belltown is what we thought it was”. If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen!
*Disclaimer: I live in Belltown and I love it. Flame on!
29 Affluent Bitter Renter // Nov 26, 2008 at 1:40 pm
“@Matthew:
I agree that crime downtown is bad, but show me a decent size city with a suburb level crime rate and I’ll show you a horse with wings.”
New York.
30 Matthew // Nov 26, 2008 at 3:36 pm
First of all, I don’t believe that there are crime statistics for just Belltown.
I’ve been to plenty of metro city downtown area that feel safer than Belltown two of them are DC and NYC.
Yes both cities have higher crime rates, but the crime occurs in certain areas and is mostly contained to the high crime areas. In Seattle, instead of just having crime in White Center and Rainier Valley, it seems to have spread into the downtown area. This wouldn’t happen in modern day NYC, the NYPD would hand out a couple beatings, make some arrests, and the dirtbags would go back to Queens, the Bronx, Harlem, etc.
In Seattle people want to hold hands, sing songs, and talk about their feelings. SPD doesn’t want to arrest crack heads, they want to write jay walking tickets. It’s a joke.
31 The MD // Nov 26, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Matthew is absolutely right on this one. Seattle has done a horrible job at keeping its crime at bay from the downtown core. Other cities have done a much better job of keeping the crime contained. Here in Seattle, it keeps spreading like a cancer. SPD is the LAMEST excuse for a crime-stopping force I’ve ever witnessed. In fact, I’ve witnessed SEVERAL drug exchanges (not mary-jane) where the Seattle police actually sat there and just watched it take place. I would point it out to them, and they simply would look the other direction as if they couldn’t be bothered by it. A bunch of p*ssies! This city’s priorities with what crime is and isn’t is completely out of whack with reality and reason.
32 Affluent Bitter Renter // Nov 26, 2008 at 7:03 pm
To be fair to the cops, they are just following the dictates of their political masters.
33 Matthew // Nov 26, 2008 at 7:13 pm
ABR,
Yes, the cops are following the orders of a pacifist mayor. If Nickels pretends their is not crime, then in his mind it does not exist.
What a joke.
34 Chas // Nov 26, 2008 at 9:06 pm
I think there is some conflation here of disreputable and dangerous. I’ve lived in Seattle for 25 years, and in Belltown for 15. The Denny Regrade, and Pioneer Square have always had plenty of homeless and street drunks who looked like hell, peed in doorways, shoplifted, and muttered to themselves, but they were not particularly dangerous, leastways if you left them alone they weren’t. If you were involved in the drug trade or prostitution, things were always dicy, but that seemed mostly to be limited to alleys at 3am.
What seems to be new in the last three or four years is young men from all over the county coming down to the clubs and restaurants with guns, and hair trigger tempers. During the nineties 2nd ave between Blanchard and Bell had big crowds in the evening, but I don’t recall any shootings.
35 Lev // Nov 26, 2008 at 11:46 pm
I think this building looks terrible. I could see it go up from my office. First they set the columns in from the corners so we thought cool the corners of the building will be transparent floors will appear like they are floating, but then they covered it with dark glass so you can’t see it. so why did they spend the money to pull the columns in? i wonder… and what are those white vinyl looking “single family type windows supposed to do for the design?
Also, overall, it looks like a cheap copy of the 2 Union Square building - similar color, shape and it even has the white cap!
36 The MD // Nov 27, 2008 at 10:28 pm
Lev, its because the building was “designed” by Weber Thompson. Supposedly they’re like “good” architects in Seattle. Well, I find all their buildings to be VERY dull, unoriginal, and typically just slab-sided glass with a couple of details. There’s absolutely no imagination or anything inspiring in ANY of their buildings, whether it is residential or commercial/office.
37 El Puso // Nov 29, 2008 at 3:49 am
MD,
The ice is melting beneath your feet.
38 The MD // Nov 29, 2008 at 1:28 pm
El Puso, say what? LOL
39 November Wrap Up | urbnlivn on Seattle condos // Dec 2, 2008 at 12:37 pm
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