As rumored earlier this month, it's now official! Olive 8 developer, RC Hedreen, has retained Kennedy Wilson to auction off 34 units on Sunday September 19th. Kennedy Wilson was also the auctioneer for the 5th and Madison auction. Get the full details at Olive8CondoAuction.com or go here if you don't want to give them a fake email address to see all the units being auctioned. Guess even though they had their $90 million construction loan renewed for an additional two years they're getting nervous as they get to the one year mark. The units being auctioned are on floors 18 through 26. They're holding back the sky suites on floors 27 to 39 and will continue to sell those traditionally. Starting bigs start at $160k but as with the 5th and Madison auction be sure to pay attention to the fine print on this auction:

All homes have an unpublished reserve price (Unpublished Reserve Price), which means that the seller has established an unpublished minimum selling price. The Starting Bid is not the reserve price. In order to become the winning bidder of a home, a bidder must have the highest bid and meet or exceed the unpublished reserve price. The highest bid is subject to acceptance by the seller. With respect to a high bid less than the seller’s reserve, the high bid, resulting purchase documents/offer are subject to the seller’s acceptance, counter-offer or rejection during the auction, in the contract room and/or within five (5) days following the auction.

I'm sorry I missed the first official announcement on the Olive 8 blog, Olive 8 Auction, because I'm puzzled by their language,

The Olive 8 Sales Team is proud to announce that we will have 34 homes auctioned in September. The auctioned homes will be on our lower floors 18 through 26. The sales office will remain open onsite and continue to sell floors 27 through 39 our “Sky Suites.” Now is a great time to buy a view home in Seattle’s tallest and most luxurious tower. The sales office is open daily from noon to 5 p.m.

Proud? They failed to sell the units conventionally so now they're resorting to an auction to try and move units. This building was initially almost completely pre-sold but when it time to close only a fraction of the units closed and sales have struggled ever since. Great time to buy? Prices are up slightly while sales volume dropped 30%. Prices are more likely to go down than up at this point.