Excel Properties recently joined the John L. Scott family as an independent office and is now known as John L. Scott Greenlake, serving north Seattle.
The Greenlake office is located at the north end of the lake at 7850 East Green Lake Drive North.
As a volunteer & foster parent with the Seattle Animal Shelter at Interbay (between Queen Anne & Magnolia), I wanted to take this opportunity to get the word out about an upcoming dog adoption event.
The Adopt-A-Dog month event will take place on October 22nd at Wags Belltown (113-A Bell Street) from 11 am to 3 pm. Folks from Wellness Food and the Belltown Feed & Seed will be on hand. There will be a raffle too.
The adoption fee range between $125 to $165 and include a fabulous dog companion, plus:
Wags Belltown will be hosting a Halloween Costume Party on Sunday, October 29th from 2 to 5 pm. There will be food, games and prizes for best costume. So, bring your urbanite pooch and enjoy the fun.
The Seattle Home Show 2 is going on this weekend at the Qwest Field Event Center.
The show is open Thursday - Saturday, 10 am to 8:30 pm and Sunday from 10 am to 6 pm.
The Washington State Ferry system, which introduced free Wi-Fi access on a number of routes back in 2004, will now start charging for access. Additionally, the ferry system will expand Wi-Fi access to all 28th vessels in it’s fleet.
The cost of the Wi-Fi access is to be determined but may be similar to Wi-Fi prices at the state’s highway rest stops. Currently, the rest stops charge $2.95 for 15 minutes, $6.95 per day or $29.95 per month.
From the city’s DPD land use bulletin that could be potential condominium projects:
Market District
Supplemental Design Review Board Meeting set for 120 Pike Street for a 23-story building including 18 floors of residential units. This is located on the NE corner of 2nd Avenue, right next to the Liberty Jewelry. If memory serves, there used to be a teriyaki place on the ground level.
Lower Queen Anne / Denny
Design Review Board Meeting set for 600 Denny way for a hotel/residential building - 150 room hotel, 56 residential units. From the map, this looks to be the Greg’s Japanese Auto lot. Update: the hotel will be a Hyatt Place Hotel and will be developed by Kauri Investments and Ariel Development. The residential units are condos.
Ballard
Design Review Board Supplemental Meeting set for 1545 NW Market for a 230 unit residential building (south of Market at 17th Avenue NW, across the street from Hjarta).
The old Rainier Brewery in the Georgetown neighborhood was acquired by the Sabey Corp. Sabey plans to convert the landmark designated, 5.5 acre property into new condominium housing.
Urban Visions, the company behind the proposed 30+ story 2nd & Pike condominium high-rise (not to be confused with 1521 or 2nd & Pine), purchased the Liberty Jewelry & Loan pawnshop building on Pike Street between 1st Avenue & 2nd Avenue.
The parcel is on the same block, just south of the 1521 project. Urban Visions plans to redevelop the property as another condo project, making it the 4th new condo building in a 3 block stretch of 2nd Avenue.
Another online real estate company has surfaced in the Pacific Northwest. Ezdigs.com is fairly similar to Redfin but will focus on King and South Snohomish Counties.
On the buyer’s side, Ezdigs.com will retain 1% (of the purchase price) and rebate the remainder to the buyer. The buyer will need to do their own research and view homes on their own, though it seems they will make the arrangement on the buyer’s behalf, something Redfin doesn’t seem to do.
On the seller’s side, it’s essentially a 4% listing company. Ezdigs.com will list for 1% and recommend a 3% selling office commission to the buyer’s broker.
Informative article in the Seattle PI on the disappearing marine life from Puget Sound due to contaminants and shoreline changes, affecting natural plants, crabs, seabirds, salmon and the orca populations. Here’s a clip of the various sources of pollution affecting the sound.
A while back I wrote a post about the human cost of conversions with the new owner/developers only needing to provide 90 days notice and $500 to displaced tenants. It looks like the increasing number of conversions, and thus, more displaced tenants, who undoubtedly are unable to afford to purchase the snazzy conversions, are getting noticed by the politicos. From the PI’s Forced Out Tenants article:
(State Senator) Fairley’s plan would ban construction, remodeling or repairs during the required advance notice period for conversion or until at least 12 hours after the last tenant moved out. It also would increase the minimum payment to $2,500, then adjust it each year for inflation.
It would allow cities to cap the number of apartments that could be converted to condos each year and extend the notice period from 90 to 120 days.
I personally don’t fully support the current proposal, but I applaud steps to protect tenants and to fairly compensate them when they’re displaced due to a conversion. Conversions, after all, is a business venture so it does need to be economically feasible to the developer and to provide needed housing units for would-be home owners.
