By Jon Peterson
There has been a new record price established in Seattle for unpermitted 65 foot zoned land in the University District with the recent sale of $352 per square foot or $5.8 million for the 16,000 square foot site located at 4218, 4222, and 4228 Roosevelt Way Northeast.
The land was acquired by an un-named capital source based in Asia, according to sources familiar with the transaction. This investment entity is familiar with Seattle as it does own a home in the Redmond area. The previous land sale record for the district was $316 per square foot for land located at 4230-4234 11th Avenue Northeast. This parcel was bought by Arion Investments in November 2013.
The seller of the land was Seattle-based Triad Development. Brett Allen, a senior vice president with the firm, did not respond to a phone call seeking comment for the story.
The listing agent on the sale was the Seattle office of Colliers International. “I think that this sale shows how much interest there is in land in the University District that is close to the University of Washington. The seller had paid $4.3 million for the property when it acquired it. It didn’t really do much of anything to the land. This parcel was not marketed, and the sale was an off-market transaction,” says Dan Chan, a vice president with Colliers. He and Tim McKay, a vice president in the multi-family Investments area for Colliers, both worked on the transaction.
The project is located about four blocks from the University of Washington. It would seem like an ideal fit for student housing to serve the University. It’s also close to a new light rail stop that is projected to be put in by the year 2020.
At this point it’s unclear how many units the new owner of the land might be developing. “We do not know how many units the new buyer is planning to build because we don’t know if they will use a model with individual apartments or more of a shared space with 4-6 bedrooms surrounding a large kitchen/common area. Our original buyer was planning more of an individual student apartment concept that would’ve given the developer roughly 160 studios in the 275 to 325 square foot range,” said McKay.
