From their marketing team:

Great news all! Our Alex project will be going condominium!! In looking at the long-term condominium absorption for the downtown area, our builder, his bank, and the appraisers are all in agreement that this project will make for a successful condominium.

At present, the interior framing is well under way on the lower levels, the brick exterior is starting to take shape, and our estimated completion date is approximately March 1st, 2009. We are considering commencing the selling of the condominiums in early to mid January, which is just around the corner. We have drawn up some preliminary pricing based on the past quarter’s condo market performance, and we will continue to make pricing adjustments as needed to mirror the market goings-on. Thus, the final prices are not yet available. Thank you for your patience on this front. Now that we know our direction, the Alex marketing materials are being produced and we will soon have something tangible for you to look at.

Here’s a photo from November 1st of the construction:

Bonus link: Condo Market Deterioration Shows Signs of Slowing, Says NAR.

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Here they are:

Central Corner Condominiums
1117 E Denny Way #A

1310 E Union
1310 E Union St #202

19th Ave Lofts
1812 19th Ave #206

Madison Lofts
2914 E Madison St #210

Belmont Lofts
231 Belmont Ave E #407

Trace North
1414 12th Ave #406

Pike Lofts
303 E Pike # 611

615 E Pike
615 E Pike St #406

Reminder: Urbnlivn Meetup + 12th & Madison Party December 9th. Meet the people behind the blog.

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Here’s a guest post from someone at Equinox looking to connect with other Equinox buyers. - Matt

Hello Equinox pre-sale condo buyers. I am a buyer in the Equinox Condo project and I wanted to take a minute to try and reach out to the other buyers in this project. If you have already entered a purchase and sales agreement with the seller/developer, and are suspicious/unhappy with your current position and where your position is headed, PLEASE email me. I would like to talk to as many of you as I can, provided that you are unhappy with the way you have been treated by the seller/developer or are trying to get out of your contracts while retaining earnest money, as you may feel you have a strong case as to why you should be able to rescind your agreement and keep your earnest money. Please email me at presale.condo.buyer@gmail.com and leave me a phone number at which you can be reached and I will contact you personally. I would like to meet each of you who are concerned about your position so that I can talk to you and discuss your options. Perhaps we can organize a group meeting and discuss the issues at hand. At this point, we, as buyers, have much more control than you may think and can absolutely enter into more formal legal matters. If anything, we can discuss the progress of the job, the housing market, mortgage plans and the schedule date for completion/closing. I have some important issues to discuss with you and would like to help everyone who would like to talk. Thank you and I look forward to hearing from everyone.

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Looks like 18 units, 1 and 2 bedrooms, starting at $185,000. The auction date is December 13, 2008. For more details call 800-522-6664.

This sucks for existing buyers but The Press has had a hard time moving units for a long time now and has gone through several different marketing firms. I’m a little surprised they aren’t waiting until the spring but I guess they have their reasons for doing an auction during one of the slowest real estate months of the calendar year.

Recent sales at 1610 Belmont:

#504 - $359,000 - 2 bd / 2 ba - 870 sf - Sold in October
#301 - $390,000 - 2 bd / 2 ba - 890 sf - Sold in September
#403 - $300,000 - 1 bd / 1 ba - 670 sf - Sold in August
#502 - $310,000 - 1 bd / 1 ba - 670 sf - Sold in August

There haven’t been any recent sales at 1620 Belmont.

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Elsewhere: Parking lot across from Space Needle sells for $5.7M. Might be a hotel.

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RSVP.

Since I’m no good at organizing I’m teaming up with Ted from Trace Lofts and we’re going to throw a big joint holiday party at 12th and Madison. Hopefully I can convince all you condo junkies, real estate agents, architects, designers, journalists, bloggers and developers to come out and Ted will work on bringing out friends of Trace.

So we know how much booze to buy please RSVP.

I will clean up my place and give you a tour. So let’s pencil in 8 p.m. as the time to check out Matt’s loft.

You will also notice that I’ve added another sponsor today, Trace North… Ted recently emailed asking about advertising and I give him a few options. The one I never thought he’d go for, and that I labeled the “Matt sells his soul option”, he surprisingly went for. After we shook on the deal over lunch he asked if this meant I’d stop giving him a hard time on the blog and I smiled and said no though I figure there probably isn’t that much more to grill him about.

Needless to say, I’m now convinced Ted is in it for the long haul and intends to sell Trace North as advertised. And I love how the ad turned out (please go easy on us both in the comments! I need to keep these advertisers to make this blog less of a chore and more of a part time job.)

So we’ll see you there? December 9th? 5-9 p.m.?

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It’s an 80 unit building by Barrientos who is doing a number of apartments in the area and did the Leona on Queen Anne which I visited recently. It’ll be interesting to see how much downward pressure their own projects put on themselves or whether there really is that much demand in the area. The architect is Weinstein A|U who on their website say it was a $11.1 million project. And Ethan Stowell is opening a 40 seat restaurant called Anchovies and Olives. I love Tavolata and Union so I’m excited for another good restaurant to join the area.

The building is move in ready, most of the studios are gone already. Rents range from $1195 to $2025.

I’m no expert on apartments but it seemed mid-tier; laminate counter tops, electric range, base board heat. But some units do have “hardwood”, they all have washer/dryers in the units and the west facing units have an absolutely great view.

For incentives, if you sign a 6 to 11 month lease you get half a month off. 12 month you get a month free.

What I didn’t like the most, and something I only noticed Monday after going to the grocery store, was that the backside (the east facing side) was ugly as hell. I’ll have to go take a photo. It’s a shame that they don’t pay consideration to all sides of the building.

View all the photos.

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Last chance before builder converts to rentals!

Elsewhere:

• PSBJ, Belltown apartments sell for $36.5M
• PSBJ, Westlake Center in Seattle to go up for sale

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Roof top deck:

Den in the full loft:

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If anyone has any juicy condo tips or something, email me.

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