Vulcan will sell SLU apartment projects, build more highrises

Paul Allens Vulcan Inc. plans to sell all of its South Lake Union apartment buildings and invest the proceeds into eight new office and apartment projects, launching another flurry of construction in the former warehouse district.

The 872-apartment, five-building portfolio is located within blocks of Amazon.coms headquarters. Based on recent apartment sales in Belltown and Capitol Hill, analysts say theyd expect Vulcans portfolio to fetch more than $400 million.

Vulcan put the apartment buildings on the market this summer to be bought together or individually, spokeswoman Lori Mason Curran said Friday. We are expecting final offers in the coming weeks.

Alcyone, Alley24 and Stack House are across from the Cascade Playground, while Rollin Street Flats and Borealis sit on busy transit corridors. Another Vulcan apartment project called The Martin, a 188-unit high-rise in Belltown, is already under contract to a buyer whom Curran didnt identify.

Big investors such as insurance companies and pension funds have shown a huge appetite for property in South Lake Union because of Amazon.coms job growth and the areas rising rents. In December 2012, Amazon bought its 11-building campus from Vulcan for $1.16 billion.

On Thursday, a San Francisco company paid about $508,000 a unit for The Gatsby Apartments in Capitol Hill, records show. In April, Joseph Arnold Lofts in Belltown went for about $515,000 a unit, according to commercial real estate brokerage JLL..

Vulcans portfolio could fetch anywhere between $450,000 to $600,000 a unit, said Seattle apartment broker Kenny Dudunakis of Berkadia. That could mean total proceeds between $392 million and $523 million.

Plans to sell the apartment properties were first reported Friday by the Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce.

Curran said the proceeds will pay off debt and be invested into developing three blocks near Lake Union, a full block at Westlake Avenue and Denny Way and a few parcels in between.

If all the proposed Vulcan projects get built, they would add more than 1,650 new apartments, nearly 1.3 million square feet of office space and 86,000 square feet of retail to the neighborhood, according to a Seattle Times analysis of Vulcans filings with the city.

Read more from the original source:
Vulcan will sell SLU apartment projects, build more highrises