Tacoma Condo Roundup

The Tour of Urban Living was a few weeks ago and, given our opinions on the housing market around here, we had to see what all the excitement was about.  We visited four projects and one pre-project sales office: the Triangle Townhomes, The Bridge Condominiums, The vintage Y, Sky Terrace, and the office for The Galleria.  Generally speaking, we were impressed by what we saw.  However, there was a definite mismatch between the image of these condos on paper and what we saw in real life.  The advertising materials and News Tribune stories talked about hip urban living.  The decor of the model homes was anything but hip.  One person we know described the vintage Y model apartment as Edwardian Asian Gothic Victorian.  While the amazingly tall ceilings were amazing, Urban hipsters aren’t looking for harp players in their $500k apartments.  Then again, the folks walking around the city weren’t exactly young urban types.  The folks we saw touring condos tended to be over 50 and downsizing.  Ignoring the demographics question entirely, we actually really liked some of the downtown condos. 

Here are some of my thoughts:

The Bridge Condominiums

The Bridge project took the circa 1931 Marcourt Building on Market Street, across from the city building, and transformed it into new urban ‘lofts’.  I first noticed this building a few years ago.  It seemed so sad as an empty shell with a great exterior patina, a bomb shelter sign at the front door, and nice architectural lines.  I thought it would make a great building for somebody and hoped that it would eventually be found by a worthy developer before it fell into total disrepair.  After reading about the sale of the building, its eventual transformation, and seeing the various pre-sales advertisements, I was expecting to NOT like it.  Sometimes I’m a cynic.  But I was pleasantly surprised. 

The spaces are great.  The blending of old and new in the flooring, walls, and ceilings, worked extremely well.  The outdoor decks for every apartment and a common rooftop patio all added to the character of this building.  The tall ceilings and decent finish work just completed the package for me.  The stairways in the hall had this essence of old high school thing going for it.  We liked every unit we saw.  Some were a bit quirky, but working in an old building can be like that.  The 1600+ square foot unit on the 4th floor just seemed to go on forever.  Prices on the remaining units ranged from $379k to $539k which seemed comparable to other similar projects, but generally ridiculous.  The only downside seems to be a lack of view units.  That darn city building is in the wrong place. 

Vintage Y

We didn’t even realize the circa 1909 YMCA building on Market Street was going condo until a few weeks ago.  They don’t seem to be too far along in the condo conversion process, but the units they had open were quite impressive.  The first floor ceilings are amazingly tall and the original windows keep with the building’s character.  Priced from $175k to $565k this building should have a bit more economic diversity in it than some of the other buildings.  I would love to get a more thorough look at the building in a few months when more units are ready to go.  So far I’m impressed.  This project was another surprise. 

Triangle Townhomes

The Triangle Townhomes is one of those projects that is consistently stated as a sign of the new Tacoma.  A project that reveals how far we’ve come.  Well, I’ll state this up front – The Triangle Townhomes were a disappointment.  The exterior design seems to fit into Tacoma’s urban landscape and the views from the upper floors were quite nice.  What really bothered me was the finish work.  The units start around $475k, yet the finish work was Home Depot quality.  It’s like the architects defined urban contemporary as simplistic and cheap.  We loved the wood used for staircases in the units.  We hated the cheap wood handrails.  The units used hanging sliding doors for several rooms.  I kinda like that.  But the cheap plastic guides that were drilled into the wood floors were… cheap white plastic.  The units had some very large walk in closets.  If the assumption is that the new owners are going to build out some serious custom closets, then please don’t put cheap plastic-coated home improvement store closet shelves in there just so they can be torn down.  Leave it empty.  The woodwork around the windows and fireplace mantel was poor fitting and looked unfinished.  And this was in the unit that, we were told, is the model and ready to go.  What worries me is that if the details we can see are poorly executed, what about those things we can’t see?  For a project where the units have increased in price significantly before a single one was ever finished, we expected more. 

Sky Terrace

A friend of ours looked at an apartment in Sky Terrace several years ago and came back with stories.  The building was a time capsule of 1950/1960s futurism.  The architecture seemed to match Disney’s Tomorrowland – which happens to date from 1955 – and the interiors hadn’t changed a bit.  This sort of 1960s funk works for some people and not for others. Well, the conversion process did a good job of cleansing the building of most of the funk.  The units are all decently finished with amazing views of the port.  The downside is that nearly every unit is exactly the same.  Okay, there’s a one or two bedroom layout.  But that’s the variety you can get and the one-size-for-every-unit isn’t particularly large.  These are great, simple, spaces and the prices are reasonable.  Amazing views and the prices start under $200k.  I heard something about a penthouse for $700k or so.  Given the price for a unit at One Stadium Way, that sounds like a bargain. 

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The prices for a condo in downtown Tacoma seem to favor the professional downsizing couple more than any young person.  I have this fear that Tacoma will gentrify before it’s ever cool.  We’ll see.