We’re venturing a bit further outside the Seattle area than usual for this story, but I thought it was interesting enough to merit that. From the Gray’s Harbor paper, The Daily World comes this story about an up-and-coming planned community of half-million to million-dollar homes in Pacific Beach:
On a cliff in the woods overlooking the Pacific, seven picturesque beach houses have emerged.
In the next few years, developer Casey Roloff plans to build 393 more, plus classy cafes, coffee shops, retail stores and parks — transforming this once-vacant mass of forest land a mile south of Pacific Beach into a town unlike any other on the West Coast.
Seabrook emphasizes sustainable development and the cozy community feel that is central to the new urbanist movement. Garages are placed behind homes in alleys, leaving more prominent space for walking paths and pedestrian-only streets. Lots are smaller — but community-owned areas, like parks, amphitheaters and benches — are designed to be accessible from every home. And instead of building gated mansions along the ocean, homes will be balanced with community space, trails and a pedestrian bridge.
It’s quite a nice-sounding vision. One wonders if there is really that much demand for such a place in Pacific Beach. Can the local economy support such a grand vision?
About 325 families have placed refundable $5,000 deposits to get on the waiting list for Seabrook. Of those investors, Roloff estimates around 60 percent are from Washington. But people from Florida, Arizona, New York, Idaho and California have also reserved houses, which currently range from $475,000 to $700,000 — almost double the price at which the homes were being offered in June 2004. A few Harborites have even reserved.
…
Like 90 percent of the people considering buying into Seabrook, Alison Kruse, a Covington homemaker, is looking for a second home.
Yowza, that’s a lot of “investors.” How many people are buying with intent to actually live there for at least a portion of the year, and how many are hoping to sell in a few years? At any rate, it sounds like it would make a fun ghost town to visit 50 years from now. I kid, I kid.
(Kaitlin Manry, The Daily World, 10.08.2005)