Seattle PI on conversions

I think I missed this Seattle PI article about the effect of conversions on the tenants, Forced-out tenants could see more money:

Ann Silver’s landlord must pay her $500 to move out of the apartment she’s lived in for nearly 16 years — an apartment that’s about to become a condo.

The condo in question is the ugliest condo in Seattle, Vertigo…There are some choice quotes in this article like this one from Vertigo’s developer, Gintz, ‘Yeah, it’s a mess right now, but it’s going to be beautiful’. Ugh really? I’m color blind and I find the place to be absolutely hideous.

And then there is this one:

Warren Ballard, vice president of Williams Marketing, which works on conversions, said raising the required payment to $2,500 would make converting apartment buildings “financially impractical.”

I call bullshit on this. The developers spend a small fortune on condo advertising. If they cut back on a few Sunday ads (see advertising the bubble) they could easily afford to send off their previous tenants in a more accomodating way.

They also had this nice info graphic: