Sustainable Building and Condo Breakdowns

How do I constantly find myself reporting on real estate gone wrong? Oh yeah, because it seriously happens, and I believe people need to weigh all the risks when making real estate decisions.

Today’s real estate disaster is rather epic in scale, and it’s also a tale of six degrees of real estate separation. Remember the Taos home from last week? The one built by the Mithun architect? Well, I was clicking through the Mithun site and came across a stunning condo building they did back in 2004-8. After further digging, I found out that the condo building–Seattle’s Mosler Lofts–was the subject of much drama, which was dutifully reported on by my blogger bud Matt over at UrbnLvin.

It’s not Kevin Bacon, but it’s still cool to make connections across the real estate world. The drama largely surrounded a lien that stuck around for years (a lien being a claim against the title of a home, meaning you can’t sell it). The lien was finally resolved in the spring of this year, and the owners are thrilled to be released from their lien-created prison. Even the developer himself is using the opportunity to sell his unit.

Dramz aside, the building was ambitious in scale and in sustainability goals. The developer, Mark Schuster, even wrote a book about it: Lofty Goals. It’s clear that the building was a true labor of love for Schuster, who named it after his grandfather. I don’t know how much dirt he’ll dish on the lien, but hopefully he’ll go for transparency rather than simple PR. Sharing real stories is a great way to learn from each other.

On to business!

Let’s check out the units. The developer isn’t the only one peacing out on this building. Here are the units I found currently for sale:

• Penthouse #1 – 2,398 sq ft – $1,970,000
• Penthouse #2 – 2,000 sq ft – $3,00,000 (this is the developer’s unit)
• Unit #900-901 – 2,035 sq ft – $1,395,000
• Unit #1007-8 – 1,546 sq ft – $898,000
• Unit #316 – 991 sq ft – $388,000
• Unit #311 – 697 sq ft – $224,950
• Unit #704 – 551 sq ft – $209,000

A true condo assortment!

You’ll have to click through to see photos of each unit (and I do recommend checking them out – they’re pretty diverse), but here are a few to whet your palette:

[Show as slideshow]