Chase held the ultimate short sale this week when it sold the former WaMu Center to Russell Investments for $115 million; the tax-assessed value of the property was set at $300 million by King County.
Russell’s move to Seattle was met with a decidedly tepid response from local public officials who didn’t want to gloat in the face of Tacoma’s loss of its favorite son, but the general impression was that getting Russell is a very good thing.
It’s doubtful that the owners of neighboring high-rise towers greeted news of the sale with much enthusiasm. Like any neighborhood foreclosure or short sale, the reduced price immediately lowered property and lease values across the board in downtown Seattle.
“They basically got the real estate for free,” Seattle developer Douglas Howe, of Touchstone Corp., told the Seattle Times . Building owners who wish to sell their assets or find new tenants in the near future will be looking at drastically lower numbers. In effect, the sale, even though it brought a prestigious financial services company to town, is likely to further dampen Seattle’s commercial real estate market.
WaMu’s demise continues to haunt the region. Now you can add Tacoma and downtown property owners to the list of victims in that collapse.