How appealing is it to potential renters to find out that their apartment could be “put up for sale as condos again in 18 to 24 months”?
That’s what those canny development moguls at Schnitzer West, owners of the Bravern, have decided to find out. To beat slumping demand for condos (they let Eric Pryne at the Seattle Times in on the strategy), “we’re shorting the supply.” (“That’s like saying ‘I quit’ after you’ve been fired,” says a Seattle Times commenter.)
The 236-unit south tower will be offered for lease as apartments, beginning at $1,100 (and reaching the heady heights of $5,000) per month. You can still sneak into a condo in the north tower for as little as $320,000, says the PSBJ.
What’s puzzling about the rental pitch is the firm’s insistence it’s only until the market recovers. First of all, what recovery means in Bellevue isn’t exactly assured. Pryne writes that: “County records indicate about 150 of the 377 units at Washington Square, completed in early 2008, remain unsold. And buyers have closed on fewer than 100 of 539 condos at Bellevue Towers, completed early last year, despite price cuts last summer.”
Second of all, how large is the pool of renters who don’t care when their residence becomes a condo re-conversion? Personally, I might tone that optimism down until I rented a few of those 236 vacant units.