Forget $200k for 500ft². Coming in 2008 to downtown Bellevue: $400k for 700ft² (that’s $571/ft² for you math whizzes out there).
A longtime cornerstone of downtown Bellevue, the old Puget Sound Energy headquarters, is coming down this week to make way for twin condominium towers the developer anticipates will be one of the region’s most energy efficient new residential projects.
Called Bellevue Towers, the project at the corner of 106th Avenue Northeast and Northeast Fourth Street, will feature 565 condominiums atop retail shops, a restaurant and parking. The 42- and 43-story towers are to be completed in the fall 2008. Condo prices are projected to range from $400,000 to $7 million for units 700 to more than 6,000 square feet.
Bellevue Towers is one in more than a dozen new residential projects turning downtown Bellevue from a shopping and business core into a 24-hour live-work environment. That transformation is one reason Bellevue Towers’ developer, Gerding/Edlen Development of Portland, was attracted to the city, spokeswoman Margo Spellman said.
We’ll see if the city still just as attractive for this kind of excess in 2008.
Gerding/Edlen principal Scott Eaton said he hopes Bellevue Towers will appeal to buyers interested in architecture and sustainability.
“We’re absolutely passionate about the design of this project,” Eaton said. “Inside and out, this is going to be a project appreciated by people who are interested in architecture and who care immensely about design.”
…and who have far more money than sense.
(Elizabeth Rhodes, Seattle Times, 01.28.2006)