First up is a live/work unit at the Klee. My friend Ming bought the live/work unit that last came on the market there a year or so ago. I definitely like the live/work units at the Klee more so than the rest of the units. Must be their tall ceilings, open floor plans, concrete floors and ceilings. This 971 square foot unit is listed at $425k.

Next up is a unit in our building, Trace Lofts, #207 just down the hall from us. $335k for 672 square feet.

And finally check out the “sophistcated lighting” at 2021 1st Ave #E6:

I knew you’d love it!

We’re hoping that by having a number of people report the problem we can put some pressure on the city to fix the problem sooner.

Here’s the streetlight trouble report form. Some of the affected lights are numbers 1406, 1410, 1412, 1414 and 1416 along 12th.

Thanks for your help.

Emails flew back and forth and it was pointed out to us that we should have read what we were signing a little more closely when we bought our places:

From our condo declarations:

9.7 Declarant’s Signage Easement. The Declarant reserves the right to install, maintain, repair, replace and remove advertising signs on the exterior wall of the east side of the Building and to have reasonable access to such portions of the Building for such purposes and may penetrate the east wall of the Building with any type of attachment hardware necessary to affix said signs to the Building. Such signage shall comply with applicable City ordinances but shall otherwise not be subject to the signage restrictions in this Declaration. Said right may be exercised continuously or intermittently and may be assigned by the Declarant to any person.

I spoke to the declarant at the Tavern Law party on Tuesday and word is that the Starbucks banner will be up for only two months and then who knows what. Hopefully(?) the Precision Tune apartments will be blocking that wall soon.

It’s about time! One of the appeals to me of buying at Trace was the promise of living above restaurants and bars. Unfortunately it’s taken them two years to open the bar. The bar was previously known as Gun Club and was to be opened by Michael Klebeck but that got called off last year, then nine months ago the Spur team announced they’d be running the bar.

They’ve been working furiously on the space since April. When I peaked my head in Monday I didn’t think they’d make the Tuesday party, there were boxes sprawled everywhere and workers were bustling about, but they did.

The space has a main floor as well as a private room upstairs. The stairwell to the upstairs is lined with risque photos.

Here’s the (air conditioned) upstairs lounge:

The cocktails were strong with names like “East India” and “Gun Club”. So good that at midnight there was someone sprawled on the floor of the Trace Lofts lobby completely passed out. There wasn’t much in the way of food, but I heard they’ll be rotating their food menu weekly and dishes will be priced under $15.

Look for Tavern Law to open this Friday or Saturday. I can’t wait!

Here’s my photos. But the official party photos are much better.

In other Trace news #402 at Trace Lofts is being re-sold. It originally sold for $515k June 2008 and is listed at $549k. It’s a 820 square foot unit, essentially a studio. I actually really like the floor plan [pdf] plus it’s west facing but $670/sq. ft. seems a little pricey.

The marketing remarks mention it is one of the first re-sales. I believe it is the second re-sale, though the first re-sale was canceled and didn’t actually sell.

I was also asked recently by a reader named Chloe about my recommendation for buying at Trace. I’m clearly biased having bought at Trace Lofts instead of Trace North. For me, I’m a fan of west facing units plus I’m a fan of the mix of old and new. My unit at Trace Lofts has exposed brick, the original ceilings, floors from an old factory in Portland, exposed earthquake reinforcement and an old elevator door. However, the units available today at Trace are all on the 4th and 5th floors which are the new floors. These new floors still have the same floors and have fir ceilings and have the bonus of having a deck (I wish I had a deck). I’d take a unit with real wood floors and ceilings over the drywall and cork of Trace North any day. But, the $/square foot is considerably higher at Trace Lofts and the only west facing unit is a pricey two bedroom.

So, if you’re looking for something that’s a better value, west facing, still in the thick of things of Capitol Hill, Trace North has a lot to offer. I’m also a big fan of the one bedroom + den floor plans but looking at the availability they’re sold out :(. If I were to buy a Trace North today I’d seriously consider the west facing sixth floor units as they have nice tall ceilings, for instance #603.

The investor for the gym partnership would like to hear as many testimonials as possible, as soon as possible, from people who live/work in our neighborhood for how underserved we are for a gym and how many people would go to a gym if it were located here.

My testimonial would be:

I don’t currently belong to a gym. However, I’m thinking of climbing Mount Rainer this summer and doing the Seattle to Portland ride and I don’t think my twice a week hockey and weekend ski trips to Whistler are going to get me in shape.

I’d gladly pay for a gym to kick my ass a few times a week to get me into shape.

The good news is that I’ll sign up for a year membership but only use a few months of it in order to get ready for these adventures and then I’ll stop going until I find a new adventure. You may worry that I will in fact use more than those few months of a year membership but for two and half years I had a gym membership at both the Pro Clubs in Seattle and NEVER WENT ONCE. I’m your ideal high paying low attendance customer.

And just to do a little original research for this post here are the closest gym’s to 12th and Madison:

Gold’s Gym – 401 Broadway E – 1 mile away – 1.5 stars on Yelp
24 Hour Fitness – 1827 Yale Ave – 1 mile away – 3 stars on Yelp

From reading the reviews for both of those gym’s I think it’s clear we need a quality gym on Capitol Hill. Bonus definitely would be if it were close to me. Though I worry about the noise living above one. Does anyone have experience with that?

Leave a comment if you’d go to a gym a 12th and Madison.

p.s. It doesn’t take much to get Urbnlivn to write about your projects. Either, go bankrupt or have your project put up for auction OR invite me on a tour of your latest project and buy me a beer so we can commiserate over the crazy commenters.

The Gun Club is the long awaited bar going into the smaller retail space in the Trace Lofts building. Originally it was promised for summer ‘08 but never materialized and then Michael Klebeck disappeared from the picture.

The team now signed up to run “the Gun Club” is the same time behind Spur – 27 year old Brian McCracken, Dana Tough and 24 year old David Nelson.

I got a chance to talk to them in the space and they say it’s going to be a speakeasy gastropub concept with both food and 1920’s classic cocktails made from scratch and by hand with a few originals from David. However, the name will not be Gun Club but something to-be-determined. Sounds like soon they’re heading off to New York for inspiration.

The numbers I got on the size of the space was 1450 square feet with a 700 square feet mezzanine. Though they’re going to have to build out bathrooms, kitchen, etc. Currently the space has the Trace sales center in it. Apparently it will soon shut down and move to unit #203 at Trace North and build out on the bar will start promptly in 2009 with the bar opening in spring ‘09.

So I’ve eaten at the Spur before (currently 3.5 stars on Yelp.) I really liked the interiors and enjoyed the food but the small portions left me wanting. I didn’t have any cocktails so I’m going to have to head back down and give em a try.

To get on the mailing list for this new place send an email to speakeasy@spurseattle.com. The Spur also has a blog so you may want to keep an eye on that.

Message to their landlord: About time Ted! Now hurry up and sign a tenant for that monster space on the corner.

Disclaimer: Trace North sponsors this blog in case you missed the big banner across the top.

Trace Lofts

First I checked out #308 upstairs to me at Trace. Looks like a great unit for a single person. Would be a little tight for two though! They didn’t get much traffic through though. I think I was the fifth person to sign in at 3:30.

19th Ave Lofts

Then I drove up to 19th Ave Lofts and checked out #206. It’s a nice half height loft unit with polished floors. What’s cool is that the fireplace heats the unit and the gas is covered by the HOAs. The HOAs also include high speed Internet and are surprisingly cheap at $220/mn. The unit also has a deck slightly larger than what you usually see. What I didn’t like was the kitchen cabinets but those aren’t so hard to switch out. And oddly while there is a gas fireplace the range is electric. View all my photos.

615 E Pike

Next up I managed to sneak past the bomb squad to check out 615 E Pike #406. David said about 50% of the folks who came by found out about the tour here.

It’s a great unit. Huge at 2,000 square feet, 2 bedrooms, each has its own bathroom and another bathroom downstairs.

While I wasn’t a fan of the paint the owner did a lot of upgrades since buying it in 2004 including a new master bathroom, exposed duct work in the living room, added more closets and added a number of built in cabinets.

The real wow part of the unit is the master bedroom which has views to the south, east and west.

If I were to buy it I’d likely spend some money on the kitchen and replace the second floor carpet with hardwood.

View my photos.

#202 is down to $800,000.

2200

Someone sent me a photo of a notice of default for a 2200 unit.

Belltown Lofts

Need a 790 square foot modern space with commercial kitchen? Check out 66 Bell St #4 for $300,000.

Avalon

Need a cozy small space in Lower Queen Anne? Check out 22 John St #38 for $189,000.

Bay Vista Tower

Yet another big unit is on the market in need of remodeling. Only $1,774,950 for nearly 2,600 square feet.

Eastlake Lofts

#205 is on the market for $495k it was originally purchased for $459k.

Eleven Eleven

Here’s a shot of 111 E Pike that I took from my window two days ago:

Millennium Tower

The Millennium Tower penthouse, which is still a 10,000 square foot shell, that sold for $4 mil in 2004, just had a $2 mil price reduction to $8 mil.

The 17th floor SE corner unit is also down in price to $1,595,000. Almost at it’s initial 2003 price of $1,500,000.

Rollin Street

Ben visited Rollin Street and has written up his impressions since Vulcan absurdly doesn’t allow photos:

To me, the layout as well as the sterility of the exposed concrete walls and ceilings were quite reminiscent of Mosler Lofts. The decks seemed a bit too narrow, probably wide enough for potted plants and a bistro set, but not much else. The “shotgun” units on the alley side don’t seem receive a lot of ambient daylight, mostly due to the depth of the units, something to keep in mind if you like bright and airy living spaces.

Trace Lofts

My neighborhood is selling #308.

Trace Lofts. Almost sold out. Thank you for making Trace a success.

Although ek Real Estate Group is no longer representing Trace, we continue to assist Seattle home buyers to find lofts and living spaces of superior quality and value.

A call to the Trace info line re-directs to ek.

Word from my sources is that ek is no longer representing either Trace project and is also no longer representing 1111 (I heard just earlier today from someone at ek that 1111 is NOT going apartment but is going on sale in January, I don’t know how this changes things.)

I don’t know what to say, I thought ek did great things with the Trace project. However, with sales at 36% and the economy the way it is I can certainly understand that these are crazy times. Hopefully everyone impacted will land on their feet soon. And I’m sure this isn’t the last big shake up we see.

Update: There is a sign on the door of the sales center that says:

The Buyer’s Lounge is temporarily closed as sale team changes are being implemented. Please call 425-503-2200 for any information about Trace Lofts or Trace North.