By Jack Stubbs
Vancouver, Canada-based Low Tide Properties, a private real estate investment, development and management company acquired the Voda Apartments in downtown Kirkland for $89.5 million, or approximately $608,843 per unit, according to public records filed with King County. Low Tide acquired the property from Continental Properties, a Bellevue-based residential development company. The sale closed on August 1, 2018.
Neither the buyer nor the seller responded to calls for comment about the transaction in time for the publishing of this story.
Continental Properties originally purchased the site for the Voda Apartments for $12 million from Adrienne Alexandra LLC in March 2015.
The five-story Voda Apartments, located at 207 Park Lane, was built in 2018 and contains 147 units, according to the property listing on apartments.com. The complex contains a mix of studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments, according to the web site for the property. The studios range from 573 to 580 square feet, and the one-bedroom units total between 694 and 868 square feet. The largest units total between 996 and 1,085 square feet.
Some of the prominent in-unit amenities include expansive windows with views of Lake Washington, chef-style kitchens and stainless steel appliances, hardwood-style flooring and master bedrooms with walk-in closets. Some of the community amenities available to residents include a 24-hour fitness center, community terrace with outdoor dining, controlled-access entry and a fireplace lounge.
The web site also highlights the property’s ideal location: the asset sits in close proximity to Peter Kirk Park and the Marina Park Pavilion. It is also just two blocks from the in-the-works Kirkland Urban development—a joint venture between Talon Private Capital, PGIM Real Estate and Ryan Companies Inc.—a 1.6 million square foot multi-phase, mixed-use development. The first phase includes two office towers that will provide a combined total of 396,054 square feet of Class A office space, which is almost 50 percent pre-leased. Wave, a cable, television and internet provider, will occupy three floors in Urban Central, a six-story tower consisting of around 197,000 square feet, and Tableau Software will lease almost half of Urban North, a seven-story nearly 196,000-square-foot tower.
Founded in 2011, Low Tide acquires and holds office, industrial, multifamily rental and retail properties for the long term, according to the company’s web site, and looks to invest in emerging neighborhoods around Vancouver such as False Creek Flats, Gastown, Grandview Boundary and Mount Pleasant. Low Tide does not have any other current properties in the Puget Sound region.
Continental Properties and its predecessors, Continental-Bentall LLC and Continental Pacific Inc., have been in the development business since 1977 and have built over 3,000 multi-family units throughout the Pacific Northwest, according to the company’s web site. Some of the company’s in-the-works projects throughout the Puget Sound include the 124-unit Bellevue Parkside Apartments in Bellevue slated for completion in Fall 2019; the 137-unit Bellevue Vuecrest Apartments in downtown Bellevue slated for completion in late 2018; and the 80-unit Queen Anne 2nd Ave. Apartments, scheduled for completion in winter of 2018.
Another residential property developed by Continental Properties last fall sold for a significant sum. In mid-October 2017, Weidner Apartment Homes acquired the 34-story, 313-unit Tower12 Apartment Building in downtown Seattle for $225.25 million, or approximately $719,648 per unit.
