Esplanade on the Auction Block
For those of you looking to do a little impulse shopping before heading into your weekend, the Esplanade is going up for auction this morning. At 10:00 am, the condo project on the Thea Foss Waterway, minus the 11 sold units, will head to the auction block at the County/City Building. Do you want to live on the Thea Foss? Maybe you need a space for a restaurant? Looking for a L-o-n-g term investment? Today may be your lucky day…
Update:
The auction consisted of a single lot for all units minus the already sold ones. A mysterious Mr. Tomas opened the bidding at $1 million. The note holder responded at $2 million and that started the back and forth. $3 million. $4 million. $5 million. $6 million. Mr. Thomas goes $6 million … one hundred. The note holder goes $7 million. The single bidder went to phone for a while … Going. Going. Gone.
Looks like this story isn’t quite over just yet. We suspect the bank will put these back on the market again sometime soon.
Link to The News Tribune
Previously on Exit133: Esplanade Faces Foreclosure in August
Filed under: Developments, waterfront
12 comments
E Erik B. August 21, 2009
Perhaps this will mean that the units will be occupied sooner rather than later.
T Tacoma1 August 21, 2009
So, if I read that right, the top bidder got the place for $7 Is that right?
P P August 21, 2009
So, if I read that right, the top bidder got the place for $7 Is that right?
The top bidder would appear to be the bank effectively buying it back from itself.
F fuzzybear August 21, 2009
@3, yeah that is pretty much what you would expect all the way up to the 48 mil that is owed on it. The bank would not initially let it go for less than that.
S Spyder August 21, 2009
I just hope they lower prices to sell it out and bring more people downtown. I think people would move in quickly with low prices. I walked through the place and went in some units. Seems like a nice place to live.
D Douglas Tooley August 21, 2009
So, market price is $45,600 for a Condo in Downtown, plus a bonus share of some commercial space?
C crenshaw sepulveda August 21, 2009
at 45k the monthly payment on one of these units would be around $350 bucks a month, including interest, principle, taxes and insurance, sign me up!
M Marguerite August 21, 2009
I have no idea how it works for zillion dollar condominium projects on the water, but normally the foreclosure process goes something like this:
1. Owner behind in Payments
2. Trustee Sale Date Posted
3. Foreclosure/ Trustee Sale
4. If no one buys it at the Auction for the amount the bank wants out of it, they “buy it from themselves”
5. At this point it’s an REO (Real Estate Owned) or Bank Owned property, and the bank hires a few brokers and an appraiser to get independent opinions about what the property will sell for in the current marketplace.
6. Once they’ve looked at that info, they call the Real Estate Agent that that bank has designated for their area to list it, and they tell that agent what price to list it at, and it goes on the MLS.
That’s just what I’ve seen with normal individual houses, I’m very curious to see how the REO process plays out with this many units. I would love to seem them do a proper market analysis and base the pricing at Esplanade on the 31 condo sales we’ve had so far this year downtown and actually get some of those mamas sold. That would be great. I think rentals or a hotel would be much less great. I look forward to seeing what happens next!
F fuzzybear August 21, 2009
What happens next…
1)The bank already realizes they wont get their 48 mil because these will never sell as condos in this market.
2)The bank tries to sell at 80 cents on the dollar
3)The bank receives no offers and drops it to 70 cents/$. At that cost it finally starts to gain interest because now it starts to pencil out for apartments (for some entity with deep pockets willing to ride it out for 10 years before showing a profit).
4)So the bank loses 18 mil and we have another new apt. community.
M Morty August 24, 2009
9 units already sold so can’t be apartment building, The bank will take title of units with a holding company; they have titles and notes and won’t have to paper the loss. Banks selling out own projects has been a successful strategy here in the PNW and other states. Last count 155 units available at esplanade; 48m/ 155 = about 310k per unit. Add closing cost and commission, 350k plus per unit. A very steep discount to original pricing. If the bank offers financing to new condo buyers it would be a very sweet deal for anyone wanting to live in a high end-brand new building on the water. Good luck to them, awesome building!
T Thorax O'Tool August 24, 2009
If the monthly payment+taxes+HOA were less than the $750 I pay now, I’d consider it… maybe.
I think I’d rather spend $200K on a real house, with a real yard and without an HOA.
P Princess Adora August 24, 2009
I looked at them once and the sales model was really nice. Not nice enough to re-live my condo nightmare over again, but still nice.