By Jack Stubbs
On Thursday, August 16th, the Ballard 57 Apartments in north Seattle sold for $11 million, or approximately $229,166 per unit, according to public records filed with King County. The buyer was WC Seattle V SPE LLC, an entity based in El Segundo, California. The seller was Meter Properties, a residential investment and development company based in Bellevue.
Meter Properties did not respond to requests for comment about the sale in time for the publishing of this story.
The five-story Ballard 57 Apartments, located at 1731 NW 57th St., was built in 2017 and contains 48 units, according to the property listing on apartments.com. The property offers studio and one-bedroom units that average 273 square feet. Some of the in-unit features include large-scale windows, quartz countertops and energy-efficient units, according to the web site for the property. Some of the community amenities available to residents include a rooftop deck with views of the Olympic Mountains, an outdoor lounge, controlled access to the building and a bike repair station.
The web site also highlight’s the apartment’s central location in downtown Ballard just blocks from the Farmer’s Market on NW Market Street. The property is also less than half a mile from the edge of Salmon Bay, approximately two miles west of Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood and approximately six miles from downtown Seattle via Washington State Route 99.
Meter Properties looks to utilize acquisitions, development, design and property management expertise to take advantage of opportunities in core urban locations, according to the company’s web site. The company manages a number of residential properties throughout Seattle and the surrounding Puget Sound region. Some of these include the 107-unit Woodhaven property in Everett; the 112-unit Park View in Wenatchee; and the 20-unit Jupiter Apartments in Seattle.
Along with the recent sale of the Ballard 57 Apartments, there have been a couple other apartment sales in the north Seattle neighborhood over the last few months. In mid-May 2018, Stanton Condominiums LLC acquired the 26-unit Stanton Apartments for $10.1 million, or approximately $388,416 per unit, from Bridgeview TPG LLC, an entity affiliated with Seattle-based Timberlane Partners. In a larger purchase in mid-June, J.P. Morgan’s asset management division paid $60.25 million (or approximately $456,439 per unit) to acquire the 132-unit Modera Ballard Apartments from Dallas-based Mill Creek Residential.
On the development side, there is one in-the-works project in particular set to shape the fabric of Ballard in the coming months. In mid-February 2018, developer Regency Centers announced the start of construction on Ballard Blocks II, a 114,000 square foot shopping center slated for completion in the middle of 2019. Designed by Weber Thompson and located at 1451 NW46th St. across the street from Regency Centers’ existing 131,000 square foot Ballard Blocks shopping center, the project will include a 25,000 square foot PCC Community Markets store, 25,000 square feet of retail space dedicated to retailer West Marine and a 12,000 square foot childhood Early Learning Center. There will also be 25,000 square feet of office space on the fourth and fifth floors.
According to an April 2018 Seattle Multifamily report written by Yardi Matrix, there are a number of under-construction properties in Ballard that have expected completions between third quarter 2018 and first quarter 2019. These include Lennar Multifamily Communities’ The Valdox, a 178-unit project located at 1701 NW 56th St. and another 164-unit project located at 1718 NW 56th St.; Auctus Capital Partners Etta project, a 75-unit building located at 1710 NW 57th St.; and Calhoun Properties’ Riano, a 74-unit project located at 5611 17th Ave. NW. There are another four properties comprising 295 units currently in the preliminary planning stages, according to the report.
