Commercial Real Estate
Seattle is Nation’s Second Best in Construction Jobs Added
The Associated General Contractors of America reported some good news for Seattle. But given the construction you see all around you, it might not be surprising news. Here’s the press release: SEATTLE ADDED MORE NEW CONSTRUCTION JOBS BETWEEN OCTOBER 2011 AND OCTOBER 2012 THAN EVERY METRO AREA IN THE COUNTRY EXCEPT FOR HOUSTON Seattle-Bellevue-Everett area…
Double Down Interactive Doubles Office Space
Double Down Interactive, a designer of online social games, is doubling its office space at 605 Union Station, occupying space vacated by Amazon.com, the Puget Sound Business Journal reported today. The move underscores growing strength behind a revival in demand for commercial real estate as reported in our August cover story.
Negative equity dips in second quarter
About 38 percent of Seattle homeowners have mortgages in negative equity, according to a study by Seattle-based Zillow.com. The percentage of Seattle homeowners who owed more than their home was worth dropped slightly, from almost 40 percent in the first quarter of 2012. This reflects a national trend of decreasing amounts of homeowners underwater on…
Touchstone Corporation: Calling All Techies
A-P Hurd, vice president for development at Touchstone Corporation, which specializes in mid-rise tech office buildings, is optimistic about the Seattle area because of its emergence as a talent magnet for young tech professionals. California companies now see Seattle as a lower-cost market in a no-income-tax state with a well-educated workforce, says Hurd. She notes…
Commercial Real Estate Begins the Slow Crawl Back
Seattle’s long-ailing commercial real estate industry is coming back to life. With vacancy rates down and building prices rising again, developers are pursuing plans to construct new buildings for the first time in years. If you look at 2008, it was a real train wreck, but here we are in 2012 with strong buyers and…
Downtown Seattle Real Estate Market May Be Heating Up
We see more signs that the Seattle real estate market is heating up. Last week we posted the blog of a homeseeker who reported facing multiple buyers and tense confrontations. Today, Realogic Sotheby’s International Realty reports that it has sold 18 condos at Olive 8 since March 1, representing $15 million in sales. That project…
It’s Springtime and After a Long Real Estate Winter the Housing Market is Heating Up Again
On March 22nd, 2012 I signed an offer to sell my house, I think that was the day before the Seattle real estate market became a sellers market. I now find myself frantically looking for a new place to call home but am faced with an unexpectedly frothy market, where multiple buyers are bidding for…
Callison’s Unique Indoor-Outdoor Development
Here’s the press release: Global architecture and design firm Callison celebrated the completion of the nations only large scale mixed-use development to open this year. Located in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah, City Creek is a sustainably designed, walkable urban community of residences, offices and retail stores expanding over 23 acres across three city blocks….
Fugitive Mastro’s Lavish Lifestyle on Display at Auction
Whatever you may have lost in the great recession, it’s not likely to compare to what’s being given up by Seattle-based developer Michael Mastro, who owed creditors an estimated $570 million when the market tanked and pulled a D.B. Cooper, vanishing along with two diamond rings valued at $1.4 million and enough gold bullion to…
Tower of Power
On one of the last warm summer days of 2011, a construction crew put up the black steel tower of a pile driver on the south side of King Street, just west of Seattles Amtrak station. Within days, reciprocating whams! bounced off the brick and sandstone walls of Pioneer Square, as if the workers were…
Virgin on Business: House Call
The stopped-clock theory of economic prognostication says that if a dead timepiece is still accurate twice a day, making the same prediction over and over is bound to come up right eventually. The straight-line extrapolation approach relies on taking data points, drawing a line through them and predicting said trend will continue. The contrarian philosophy…
Is the Real Estate Market headed for a Seller’s Market?
Numbers recently released by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service (NWMLS) suggest that we might be about to see a seller’s market for real estate for the first time in five years. While this is welcome news, it comes with several caveats and the usual share of disclaimers, so dont go putting on your house on…
U.S. legislation under consideration to strengthen investment-for-visas program
When Seattle Business magazine first reported that 95 foreign nationals had invested $48 million to buy bonds to help fund the replacement of the State Route 520 floating bridge in hopes of getting visas to the U.S., the London Economist responded to the story with a wry look at the visas-for-the-rich program entitled Give me…