Tag Archives: apartments

What can be gleaned from Capitol Hill apartment reviews? Noise, incentives, nitpicks

Posted on by

Sunset Over Pike-Pine and Belltown, 07.13.14

The planning, birth, and death of apartment buildings on Capitol Hill are bread and butter for Seattle media, but how the buildings and their managers perform in actually providing housing is often overlooked. A spin through apartment reviews on Yelp and Apartment Ratings offers a glimpse into some of the ups and downs of living inside Capitol Hill’s new buildings.

Noise
In 2014, CHS asked how new Pike/Pine apartment dwellers might mix with the existing nightlife scene. It turns out, there is plenty of frustration out there over noise.

“I would not have signed that contract if I had known about the noise levels,” wrote one Yelp reviewer of The Packard at 12th and E Pine. At 13th and E Madison’s Citizen Apartments, a reviewer said the bass from Chop Suey was easy it hear. Some building managers appear to have anticipated the problems. A Yelp reviewer of 11th and E Pine’s Sunset Electric wrote, “I explained that we understood the area would by noisy (the building makes you sign off on that fact in lease).” Continue reading →

Giant apartment developer adds fourth Capitol Hill building in $36.1M deal

Posted on by

MediaHandler

Above, the new Three20 building -- below, the old Marion Apartments (Images: King County, CHS)

Above, the new Three20 building — below, the old Marion Apartments (Images: King County, CHS)

The largest publicly traded owner of apartment buildings in the country has bought another chunk of Capitol Hill — but this project is already set for new tenants.

Equity Residential has paid $36.1 million for the new 130+ unit Three20 apartment building opening on E Pine where the old Marion Apartments once stood. The Puget Sound Business Journal was first to report the transaction on Monday.

In April, Equity paid $10.3 million for the E Madison property Piecora’s called home for decades. Its interests previously acquired The Heights apartment building at Broadway and E Olive Way for $26.5 million in 2006 and 12th Ave’s Rianna Apartments in 2010 for $17.1 million. The Three20 building had already been included in Equity’s Capitol Hill marketing material prior to the media reports on the acquisition. Equity, based in Chicago, describes the neighborhood thusly

Equity Residential offers pet friendly Capitol Hill apartments in Washington which are less then 5 minutes from Downtown Seattle. You are also blocks away from the 545 express bus stop. Capitol Hill is great for singles with sparkling nightlife options for any lifestyle. Residents of our Capitol Hill apartments know that The Seattle Academy of Arts and Sciences, St. Joseph School and Seattle University support Capitol Hill’s thriving academic culture. Don’t forget this is the home of Starbucks as well as some of the best local coffee in the nation.

In March, CHS reported that the building would also soon be home to a new Cherry Street Coffee shop.

A one-bedroom apartment in the Three20 building runs $1,940 per month, according to Equity’s site.

Look inside latest apartment building to hit Capitol Hill rental market, get a sneak peek at the next

Posted on by
"$1550 / 1br - 555ft² - Leave Traffic Behind. Live Here. Walk Everywhere. (Capitol Hill)" -- says the ad

“$1550 / 1br – 555ft² – Leave Traffic Behind. Live Here. Walk Everywhere. (Capitol Hill)” — says the ad

Eventually, those big cranes towering above Capitol Hill will produce buildings. And people will live inside. The most recent fruition of this particular Capitol Hill circle of life has taken place down near Melrose where the Pine + Minor apartments building now rises. CHS noted the building’s color earlier this summer.

The dedicated real estate bloggers at urbnlivn.com went inside:

The blogger like the mailroom (Image: Urbanlivn)

The blogger liked the mailroom (Image: Urbanlivn)

While the style and location (right next to the foodie paradise that is Melrose Market) are top-notch, this LEED Platinum certified project is not for everybody. For one thing, the 120 units start out at 385 square feet and max out at 655. If you want the largest apartment with one of the limited parking spaces and you have a pet or need extra storage, you will have to pay more than $2,300 a month. That’s $2,300 a month for 655 sq ft.

Even at those lofty rates, Urbanlivn said the project was more than half-leased by late August. Continue reading →

Flood of apartments also means flood of ‘creative’ building names around Capitol Hill

Posted on by
You mean it's not named for the band?

You mean it’s not named for the band?

Some are plain. Some are clever. Some leave you scratching your head. Regardless of the category, the names of some of the new apartments on Capitol Hill and First Hill also say quite a bit about the history and culture of the neighborhood.

Take Coppins Well, the name of the apartments at 1000 Minor Ave.

At first glance, the name doesn’t bring to the surface any clear tie to the area and the marketing team didn’t much care for it either.

“To be quite honest, when it was first presented to us, we paused and collectively said, ‘Absolutely not’,” recalled Josh McDonald of Holland Residential.

But if you go into the well of local history, you find that in 1875, Charles Coppin dug the first well on First Hill, which was said to have produced 900,000 gallons of water every day. Tapping into a reliable water source was not a trivial matter in 19th century Seattle. The well served as an essential ingredient in the development of First Hill, attracting families that would turn the hill into a bona fide residential neighborhood.

Other names aren’t as deep, but nevertheless give a nod to the area.

The developer of the new apartments at 215 10th Ave E. chose the name ‘Lyric’ “as a homage to the musical heritage of Capitol Hill as well as iconic local musicians, such as Jimmy Hendrix and Pearl Jam, that have made Seattle, one of the influential musical neighborhoods in the country,” according to Billy Pettit, vice president of Pillar Properties.

“The lyric in itself is a symbolic representation of art, which also helps pay tribute to the artistic, vibrant culture of Capitol Hill,” Pettit added.

The arts also inspired the name of the Vox Apartments at 1527 15th Ave, which was previously a theater. The developer used the theater as a starting point for the name and came up with Vox, the Latin word for voice or sound.

“We think it’s a concise and edgy name with a fun nod to the previous theater,” said Therese Bushnell, the property manager. “We think it fits the no frills, straight forward aspect of Capitol Hill while offering a bit of creativity in its essence.”

Not all of the new apartment names have a broad historical or cultural tie.

The developer behind the Chloe Apartments at 1408 E Union St and the Pearl Apartments at 1530 15th Ave would only say that the two were named after family members of their respective owners.

14th Ave's under-construction REO Flats

14th Ave’s under-construction REO Flats

Meanwhile, two new apartments under construction will feature names that pay tribute to businesses that once thrived on Capitol Hill.

First, the building going up on 1222 E. Pine will be named Collins on Pine, which the marketing material references the speakeasy era of secrecy and celebration. It’s not a tribute necessarily to the present day bars that try to replicate the speakeasy experience but to the time when Capitol Hill was the center of the speakeasy culture in Seattle.

Finally, the name of the soon-to-be apartments at 1515 14th Ave takes us on a drive down memory lane, when auto-row ran right through Capitol Hill. Among the auto dealers on the hill back then was the REO Motor Company, which sold cars at what is now the Seattle Central Community College book store. REO also had a truck dealership at the current home of Area 51.

Developer Brad Augustine said he wanted to celebrate the industry that fueled some of the neighborhood’s growth so he named their new project REO Flats. But he wants the tribute to be more than just a name.

Inside REO Flats, Augustine said the architectural team worked hard to keep the 20-foot high store front (even though zoning only required 13-foot high ceilings) since that is what existed in old auto row buildings. Once the project is complete, photographs of old REO cars will adorn the lobby, while a large mural of a REO speed wagon (not the band, but a delivery truck) will be painted on the building’s façade.

“We’re not doing a billboard to promote our business but to promote the concept that this was once a local company,” said Augustine, founder of Madrona Real Estate Services. “We reside our businesses on Capitol Hill so we’re trying really hard to make sure we pay some homage to the history that was on that hill.”