Another condo conversion christened

| Gatewood | Seen around town | West Seattle housing | West Seattle news

In the tradition of Graham Street Apartments=Strata, etc., yet another California Avenue condo conversion has its fancy new name. The lettering above for West Water has just appeared on all the exterior fancying-up that workers have been doing at the former Watermarke Apartments (6960-6970 California, chronicled here in August and in September) for the past several weeks. West Water’s future website promises these will, of course, be “luxury condominiums.” (Found the complex’s pre-conversion sales price, $13 million, on this site, along with sales data on several other WS buildings we are now researching. EARLY MONDAY ADDENDUM: That brokerage site also has a blog, with what appears to be the behind-the-scenes story of this building’s sale.) Before/after pix (not the same exact angle but close enough) — one month ago, then today:

Jan October 28, 2007 (2:21 pm)

ok…if I say the name of this place fast, it comes out “waste water”…just my personal observation…

so..they’ve planted a few bushes, painted some, and changed the name. Are they going to redo anything inside to make it worth spending big bucks on to live there permanently? Just curious…I wish their web page told me more than what it does…

grr October 28, 2007 (2:26 pm)

OMG..what crack smoking designer chose that hideous ORANGE paint scheme!??!?! They spend $$$$ on beautiful slate with sublte greys and light blues, and they choose to accent the RUST color.

good lord. Someone needs an intervention.

Rick October 28, 2007 (3:10 pm)

Rust…hmmmm….maybe eventually it’ll blend in.

Venkat October 28, 2007 (3:31 pm)

We should give them a chance until it’s done.

I’m not a dress up fan, but I gotta admit their iteration is better than I expected.

That said, when will someone start developing some projects that can be labeled as “interesting.”

I used to think price was an issue, but if you have 13 million to play around with, you sure could do some interesting stuff. Especially on the South end of California, you have a ton of building/land that has to be on the more inexpensive side.

Tom October 28, 2007 (5:07 pm)

I looked at apartments in this building a few years ago. I am so glad now that didn’t move in there. I would one of the many renters that are being displaced all around Seattle by unfettered apartment conversions. Since there are no limitations on the number of conversion a year, soon renters throughout the city will be paying for it as rents continue to rise. San Francisco limits apartment conversions to 250 a year. Seattle has seen a loss of 2500 units lost to conversion in 2007 alone. With no change in site, the message from the city seem to be: if you can’t afford to own in Seattle, you don’t belong here.

Ron October 28, 2007 (11:27 pm)

They’ve been filling up one of those giant dumpsters about every 2 days, so they are definitely doing *something* to the inside. The first to go were all the appliances (notice the “appliances for sale” sign).
I’m sure quite a few will have excellent sound/mountain views.

I too, immediately thought of waste water…

GoCondo! October 29, 2007 (5:47 pm)

Sorry to be the voice of the market, but this liberal democrat LOVES that his neighborhood is getting more stable home and condo owners. Hey, I have been both a renter AND a homeowner and, for me, the pride of home ownership highly trumps renting. The Gatewood neighborhood is thriving and growing with dynamic energy…much of this is due to the condos and conversions that have proliferated this neighborhood over the past few years. Sure, I wish everyone could rent wherever he or she wanted at whatever price they could afford. Further, I wish that everyone could buy a single family home whereever he or she wanted at whatever price they could afford. While I adore being a West Seattleite, I think I am actually more of a Medina guy…My bank account and investment portfolio suggested different. I am sorry that renters are feeling the squeeze, but I remain delighted with the sense of zestful energy that comes from opeople feeling truly at home in their new homes — be they houses, condos, or apartment conversions. I will not fault developers who allow regular folk the opportunity to actually own a home within the Seattle city limits. Further, I think that conversions, condos, and zero lotline town homes are a far better use of habitable space within our city so, before I bemoan further development in West Seattle, I will take time to examine the benefits of homeownership and explore how we can expand these benefits to the regular working joes and janes who police our streets, nurse our illness, teach our children, cut our hair, fix our cars, unclog our toilets, put out our fires, and manage our cash registers. If we want to expand the renter conversation to providing more subsidies to provide more rental units, I would definately support that, as well.

Nameste my West Seattle neighbors

Ron October 29, 2007 (8:22 pm)

I just moved out of there. I made it through most of the construction and held out as long as I could but then the owner upped the move out early incentive money and I had to take it.

The guys who are doing the work are doing and awesome job, the new stuff they’re doing looks good but some of the apartments are so small I just cannot imagine buying one myself. They’ll sell though, they always do in west seattle.

WSB October 29, 2007 (8:24 pm)

Ah, the apartment-size comment may explain the huge banners that went up along the roofline today, one saying “WATER VIEWS, 1 BEDS FROM $239,000” …

Ron October 30, 2007 (9:10 am)

Yeah the one bedrooms are about 700SQF. They didn’t change the layouts, but have replaced everything in each apartment. They’re cute.

I would imagine the units on the top floors will sell for a great deal of moolah.

Should be interesting to see what happens.

grr October 30, 2007 (9:12 am)

I simply can’t imagine spending that kind of money for a 1 bedroom ‘apt’.

and the orange paint job is still hideous, although the tile/slate/landscaping is really, really nice.

Ron October 30, 2007 (6:48 pm)

There is orange with copper highlights. The hallways are baby blue hehe. They did some sweet tiling all over the place that looks pretty good but some of the colors are silly hehe.

Sorry, comment time is over.