By Jack Stubbs
On Thursday, January 17th, the Wally Apartments in Seattle’s Wallingford neighborhood—situated between the University District and Fremont—sold for $9.925 million, or approximately $342,241 per unit, King County records show. The buyer was HTS Wally LLC, an entity based in Westbury, New York. The seller was M&P Partnership, a family-owned property management company based in Seattle.
M&P Partnership did not respond to emailed requests for comment about the transaction in time for the publishing of this story.
The four-story Wally Apartments, located at 4111 Stone Way N., was built in 2013 and contains 29 units, according to the property listing on apartments.com. The property is comprised of one-bedroom units that rent for between $1,795 and $2,045, according to M&P Partnership’s web site. Some of the in-unit amenities include industrial-style flooring, stainless steel appliances, private balconies and oversized windows. Residents at The Wally also have access to bike storage, undercover parking and views of Mt. Rainier, Lake Union and downtown Seattle.
Seattle-based Weber Thompson designed Wally Apartments and Lake Union Partners was the project developer.
The web site also highlights the convenient location of the property in the heart of Wallingford. “Located in Wallingford, this apartment building…affords its residents convenient access to the UW, Fremont, Greenlake and South Lake Union neighborhoods. Residents also enjoy being close to the Burke Gilman Trail, Gasworks Park, Woodland Park and Zoo. There is easy access to I-5 and Hwy 99, as well as bus lines.”
Behind M&P Partnership is the native Seattle Lucurell family, according to the company’s web site. Having owned real estate in Seattle since 1923, M&P Partnership’s other property in Seattle is the Lander Artist Studios property in SoDo. The property is overseen by third-generation Lucerells.
M&P Partnership takes a family-owned approach to its property management strategy. “M&P Partnership properties are family owned which means we take a personal, hands-on approach to managing and maintaining our residential, retail and artist work studio properties,” the web site states. “We know how important it is to have a clean, comfortable and safe environment to live or work in. We take pride in our properties and respond to the needs of our tenants promptly and professionally.”
There have not been too many mixed-use property sales in Wallingford over the last few months. However, one commercial office property is set to impact the fabric of the neighborhood. In July 2018, a roughly 100,000 square foot project, designed by Weber Thompson and located at 3524 Stone Way North—roughly half a mile south of the Wally Apartments—was approved by the city as a Living Building Pilot project.
The project will hope to capitalize on the changing fabric of the neighborhood.
“[Stone Way] historically has been there to support the maritime building trades along the water, but we’ve seen it evolve into a much more vibrant mixed-use neighborhood that serves more of the residential uses surrounding it,” said Cody Lodi, senior associate at Weber Thompson in mid-July at the Design Review meeting.
“We’re pretty excited about this project, just to see Stone Way evolve into a very interesting, nice place to be,” said developer and project owner John Schwartz, president of Seattle-based The Schwartz Company. “We see an opportunity to really enhance the public realm along that street and do a nice building. We’re pretty excited about the Living Building part of this, also.”
