By Jack Stubbs
Vancouver, Canada-based real estate investment and management company Low Tide Properties recently made moves to expand its Puget Sound region portfolio, King County records show—on September 25th, the company spent $95 million, or about $693,430 per unit, to acquire the LUX Apartments, a luxury apartment property in Bellevue’s Central Business District just north of Bellevue Square. The seller of the asset was Bellevue-based Continental Properties, a Puget Sound residential development company that has been in the business since the 1970s.
The LUX Apartments, located at 1000 100th Ave. NE, was built in 2018 and comprises 137 units across five stories, according to the property listing on apartments.com. LUX offers a mix of studio, one-, two- and three-bedroom units that range from 583 to 1,412 square feet. The property’s units offer residents a variety of amenities including quartz countertops, stainless steel appliances, private decks, as well as access to a 24-hour fitness center, according to its web site.
LUX Apartments is just blocks from Bellevue Square and Shops at the Bravern, a three-story, 313,000 square foot retail village which is home to a number of high-end national and international luxury retailers including Neiman Marcus, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Moncler, Prada and Hermes Paris. The retail complex, developed in 2009 and also consisting of the Meydenbauer Center, is part of a larger mixed-use project that consists of 455 luxury residential units and 750,000 square feet of Class A office space, which is 100 percent leased to Redmond-based technology giant Microsoft.
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.
The recent acquisition of the LUX Apartments is not the company’s first transaction with Continental Properties. In early August 2018, the company spent $89.5 million, or approximately $608,843 per unit, to acquire the 147-Unit Voda Apartments in downtown Kirkland from Continental Properties.
Continental and its predecessors, Continental-Bentall LLC and Continental Pacific Inc., have been in the development business since 1977, and have built over 4,000 multifamily units throughout the Pacific Northwest, according to the company’s web site. Some of Continental Properties’ other Puget Sound region assets include the 80-unit 2nd & John Apartments in Seattle; the 184-unit Park Apartments in Bellevue and the under-development Roy Street Apartments.
The company is also developing the 135-unit Bellevue Parkside Apartments—located at the corner of NE 1st Street and 102nd Ave. NE—which is expected to be complete in Spring of 2020.
According to The Registry’s reporting, Continental Properties’ last acquisition in Bellevue occurred in December 2018—when the company spent $90.75 million, or about $493,478 per unit, to acquire the Park Apartments property from UBS, a Zurich, Switzerland-based global asset manager and investor.
