West Seattle development: Residences at 3295 up for sale

With at least half a dozen other projects along Avalon Way in varying stages of planning/construction, a recently completed building on Avalon is now up for sale.

Here’s the listing for 3295 SW Avalon Way, also known as The Residences at 3295, a six-story, 60-unit, 100-parking-space building which got its construction permits in 2006-2007, sat partially built for years, then finally was completed last year. Part of the delay was because it was originally in the portfolio of now-fugitive real-estate tycoon Michael Mastro (detained recently in France, which wouldn’t extradite him). Before that, it was supposed to be part of the Seattle Monorail right-of-way. While still unfinished, county records show that it sold for almost $4 million in 2010, and then again for $7.3 million in April of last year. It’s now owned by Randolph Street Realty Capital, headquartered in the same Chicago building as, and led by former executives of, Equity Residential, which owns the not-yet-begun Junction project site at California/Alaska/42nd.

Back to 3295 Avalon (which has a bit of history on its current owners’ website): According to the listing and accompanying documents, there is no set asking price for The Residences at 3295 – they are calling for offers this Thursday (July 25). The extensively detailed flyer for the property mentions that the building’s entire retail space is leased for five years; that would be the new Redline, whose proprietors we’re working to reach for an update on when they plan to open – we last talked with them in March.

P.S. Selling a recently completed project isn’t unheard of; three newer West Seattle projects – Mural in The Junction, Link in The Triangle, and the Admiral Safeway redevelopment – were purchased last year by American Realty Advisors, which is headquartered in Los Angeles.

Datapoint: The flyer for The Residences at 3295 quotes analysts as saying the vacancy rate in the West Seattle apartment “submarket” is currently 2.5 percent.

dave July 23, 2013 (5:29 pm)

The vacancy rate is 2.5%? And they are building close to 1400 new apartments. But you can’t find a condo to buy? Someone is not thinking here

Chrisd July 23, 2013 (10:22 pm)

Good luck selling this property. There must not have been a design review board when this was constructed.

WSB July 23, 2013 (10:31 pm)

Chrisd, I think there was, but I’m not sure how the process went – that was right before we started doing this officially. By the time I started covering DRB meetings and such, it was 2007 and this already had its permit.

kgdlg July 23, 2013 (10:55 pm)

Actually @Dave, it is kind of scary that the vacancy rate is that low, EVEN with all the new development. It basically means there is way more demand than supply in Seattle right now, primarily due to job growth and people moving here (at least that is what the last Seattle Times article on this topic told me). So, development will keep on trucking until supply catches up…

kgdlg July 23, 2013 (10:56 pm)

Also, I have not seen a new condo building built in this town since 2008. No one is building condos. Although I do expect some of these higher end apartment buildings to flip to condos after about 5 years if the interest rates stay low enough and demand is there.

Trickycoolj July 23, 2013 (11:40 pm)

Having bought in the last year and coming from 5 years in a 1987 apartment complex, the few condos I looked at were the same quality as the apartment I came from. No one wants to *buy* paper thin walls, dated fixtures and appliances, and take chances with mold. They were total money pits. For the same money, I got a brand new townhouse with a warranty, upgraded appliances and seller paid closing costs. I don’t think there’s interest in apartment style condos anymore outside of very specialty areas like Alki style waterfront or downtown luxury condos.

Herman July 24, 2013 (12:54 am)

If it weren’t for Capco Plaza, this would be the ugliest building in West Seattle.

Diane July 24, 2013 (11:58 am)

I expect the apt-to-condo flipping to start any day now; condo inventory all sold off; glut of apts, many high-end; I just hope they leave enough apt inventory to keep rents low enough for people to still afford to live here
~
sadly, the last 2 apt-condo flipping stages (2000 and 2006) did not prevent greedy investors from sugar coating a whole of crappy apts into condos, and kicking longterm renters out of their affordable apts (then people wonder why we have so many homeless)

kgdlg July 24, 2013 (3:28 pm)

Diane:

I concur, and I fear that as long as Google, Amazon and others on on a hiring binge, we are going to continue to see new market apt projects at very high rates. It seems that the high income demand is there, and many of these folks don’t want to buy right now since jobs might be temporary. I work in affordable housing and it is a very very hard problem to solve. The need far outstrips the sources to address the issue.