By Jack Stubbs
As the Puget Sound region continues to expand, investors are eyeing development opportunities further north of Seattle and surrounding areas. On Tuesday, October 2nd, two parcels of vacant land—comprising roughly ten acres—sold for $13.28 million, Snohomish County records show. The buyer was Bothell-based Pacific Ridge Homes, a company backed by homebuilder D.R. Horton that builds Northwest contemporary various residential properties throughout the Puget Sound region. The seller was Lakeshire, LLC, an entity affiliated with Village Life, a homebuilder that operates in various counties throughout the region.
The transaction was recorded on October 5th. The buyer’s media relations department did not respond to emailed requests for comment about the transaction in time for the publishing of this story.
The transaction was for two parcels of land just south of Martha Lake Airport Park that total 10.04 acres, according to public documents. Both parcels are designated as “land and improvements” and do not contain any property structures.
Public documents do not indicate a specific address for the two parcels. However, Google Maps indicates that the land is located between 152nd Pl SE and 155th St. SW, just east of Martha Lake and west of the city of Mill Creek. The land is also approximately four miles west of the Mill Creek Town Center and roughly six miles from access to Interstate-405.
The two-parcel property is also approximately five miles south of the in-the-works Paine Field Airport in Everett (located at 3220 100th St. SW), which is scheduled to begin hosting commercial flights in late 2018. Major airlines Alaska, United and Southwest have already announced planned service to and from the airport, which will accommodate up to 2,350 passengers daily. More broadly, Paine Field will look to build upon the already sizable influence of Boeing in Everett’s industrial market: the company has 34,500 employees and a 6.85 million square foot industrial footprint.
Pacific Ridge Homes builds northwest contemporary single-family homes, condos and townhomes in North King and Snohomish Counties with the backing of America’s largest homebuilder D.R. Horton, according to the company’s web site. Founded in 1978 in Fort Worth, Texas, D.R. Horton Inc. has been the largest homebuilder by volume in the U.S. for sixteen consecutive years and operates in 80 markets across 26 states nationwide.
Some of Pacific Ridge Homes’ other properties throughout the Puget Sound region include Crescent View and Meadows Edge in Lynnwood; and Aravalli and Parkview Ridge in Bothell.
There have been various apartment sales in the areas around Snohomish County in recent months, indicating that investors remain interested in the cities around Martha Lake, Mill Creek and Lynnwood. In early January 2018, California-based Sares Regis Group purchased the 139-unit Monterra in Mill Creek Apartments located at at 13401 Dumas Rd.for $39 million, or approximately $280,575 per unit, from Chicago-based Equity Residential. And in mid-June 2018, the three-story, 512-unit Taluswood Apartments in Mountlake Terrace was put on the market. CBRE is leading the marketing efforts on behalf of the current owner Waterton Associates, with bids expected to come in at about $100 million, or approximately $195,000 per unit, according to a report by CoStar.
