Newspaper Story. Our client Kennedy Wilson Auction Group was featured in a story about an upcoming real estate auction in Seattle Washington.
February 26, 2010
5th & Madison condos to be auctioned off
5th & Madison is the latest Seattle condo project to auction off units that haven’t sold.
Eighteen units will be sold at 1 p.m. March 28 at the Grand Hyatt Seattle, 721 Pine St.
Real estate auctioneer Kennedy Wilson touts “huge savings” on the condos, with starting bids of $195,000 for a one-bedroom condo.
The units had been priced from $399,000 to $899,000. The lot includes a two-bedroom penthouse that had been listed for $1.995 million. Bidding for the penthouse will start at $995,000.
The 24-story, steel-and-glass tower was marketed as a “green living” project. Seattle architecture firm Ruffcorn Mott Hinthorne Stine designed the tower to be 20 percent more energy efficient than industry standards.
Turner Construction was the general contractor.
Condo auctions have been common over the last year in Seattle as the market has tanked. At Gallery in Belltown starting bids were as much as 58 percent off the previous price. Dean Jones of Realogics Sotheby’s International Realty said 44 Gallery condos sold at an average of 32 percent off their original list prices.
Boston-based Beacon Capital Partners bought the former Union Bank of California Center in 2004 for $100.7 million. In early 2006, the company began building 5th & Madison on the north side of the site and renovating the office tower.
A year later, Kennedy Wilson and KW Fund I, in a joint venture with RREEF, acquired the office and condo development for $300 million.
The deadline to register for the auction is March 25.