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My dream job

By Matt Goyer August 6, 2007

I didn’t realize the folks behind Stewart and Minor were so young and sorry for blogging about an article that is a month old. From the PSBJ, Loft living (via UrbanAsh):

Thinking outside the box, Eugene and Tanya Gershman — two 20-something siblings behind Bellevue’s cutting-edge European Tower — will soon ask Seattleites to consider living inside the cube.

They plan to offer 150 cube-shaped condominiums in their latest project, Stewart & Minor. The site for their proposed hotel/condo tower is located on the southwest corner of Stewart Street and Minor Avenue, just east of a Goodyear Tire store.

I’m days away from being 28 and all I have is one unit at ‘Taj that I’m trading for a bigger unit at Trace (that was said tongue in cheek. I’m very fortunate to be able to afford something in Seattle.) I’d love to trade that to be COO of a company developing a major building in Seattle. Why? What I really want is the ability to not just build something unique but to also have the latitude to approach the marketing and selling process with a customer centric approach where the customer is defined as the person buying the condo. I feel like all the marketing companies cater to the developers and not to the folks buying condos.

I also don’t know if I agree with Blaine Weber that Seattle is hungry for something unique. I know I’m hungry for something unique. And I am really interested in this particular project, especially if a high degree of customization is allowed, but there are several unique projects on the market right now that just aren’t selling or didn’t sell well in the pre-sales phase. I’m thinking specifically of Lumen and Queen Anne High School. While not cubes like this, they are projects that broke the mold but didn’t see sales success like other projects in the area.

I own and manage Urban Living, a boutique Seattle and Bellevue real estate brokerage. I love lofts, floating homes, new construction, and mid-century moderns, but I will help you buy or sell just about anything!

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8 responses to “My dream job”

Phil says:

August 7, 2007 at 7:50 pm

Big difference between a “proposed” development and a succesful one (come on…a hotel/condo at this point in the cycle?). /snark

I don’t know about a major building, but there is plenty of room for unique design around here. With the coming end of this RE cycle, the people still willing to buy are going to be looking for quality, and most of what’s going up doesn’t qualify. So follow your dreams, but start small.
Phil says:

August 7, 2007 at 11:50 am

Big difference between a “proposed” development and a succesful one (come on…a hotel/condo at this point in the cycle?). /snark

I don’t know about a major building, but there is plenty of room for unique design around here. With the coming end of this RE cycle, the people still willing to buy are going to be looking for quality, and most of what’s going up doesn’t qualify. So follow your dreams, but start small.
mhays says:

August 7, 2007 at 8:13 pm

Hotel/condo combinations have some great reasons behind them. Condo buyers will pay extra to live high up, while hotel guests won’t. Hotels like their rooms to be close to their back-of-house, so they like lower floors. By combining the two you can fill much more space, which helps justify the high price you paid for land. Both groups use the hotel services, allowing the hotel to have much deeper services than its size would typically merit. Condo buyers will also pay substantially more for the opportunity to order dinner at 3:00 am, even if they know inside that they’ll never do it. Reasons like these are why we’re still seeing hotel/condo proposals. Also, some of the proposals have outstanding locations, which once again merit premium prices.

“Unique” isn’t the problem per se. The problem is idenfiying where “unique” and “what people will like” intersect. For example, Lumen has lots of transluscent screens and their kitchens are along the wall, which are unique (or somewhat) but apparently not as marketable as expected. Both are reasons why I personally didn’t consider it.
mhays says:

August 7, 2007 at 12:13 pm

Hotel/condo combinations have some great reasons behind them. Condo buyers will pay extra to live high up, while hotel guests won’t. Hotels like their rooms to be close to their back-of-house, so they like lower floors. By combining the two you can fill much more space, which helps justify the high price you paid for land. Both groups use the hotel services, allowing the hotel to have much deeper services than its size would typically merit. Condo buyers will also pay substantially more for the opportunity to order dinner at 3:00 am, even if they know inside that they’ll never do it. Reasons like these are why we’re still seeing hotel/condo proposals. Also, some of the proposals have outstanding locations, which once again merit premium prices.

“Unique” isn’t the problem per se. The problem is idenfiying where “unique” and “what people will like” intersect. For example, Lumen has lots of transluscent screens and their kitchens are along the wall, which are unique (or somewhat) but apparently not as marketable as expected. Both are reasons why I personally didn’t consider it.
downtown says:

August 7, 2007 at 10:36 pm

It sounds like the parents hooked them up with their positions…

if you are an aspiring developer you might want to strongly consider switching to the commercial side of the business….
downtown says:

August 7, 2007 at 2:36 pm

It sounds like the parents hooked them up with their positions…

if you are an aspiring developer you might want to strongly consider switching to the commercial side of the business….
Phil says:

August 7, 2007 at 11:45 pm

Just to be clear…I was talking about the architecture, not the interior finishes when using the term “unique”.
With Matt’s background, I expect he would be able to find out what is marketable to those who are interested in something else besides “a cave with granite countertops”.
Phil says:

August 7, 2007 at 3:45 pm

Just to be clear…I was talking about the architecture, not the interior finishes when using the term “unique”.
With Matt’s background, I expect he would be able to find out what is marketable to those who are interested in something else besides “a cave with granite countertops”.

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