May 19, 2014

Queen Anne project opens, then quickly sells for $51M

Photo courtesy of Mike Jensen [enlarge]

Emerald Bay Equity recently opened Queen Anne Towne, a 108-unit apartment building that also will have a Trader Joe's, and then sold it last week for $51 million, property records show.

The buyer is Deutsche Asset and Wealth Management, also known as RREEF. David Young, Corey Marx and Seth Heikkila of Jones Lang LaSalle brokered the sale.

Trader Joe's is scheduled to open in August. There will be 30,000 square feet of retail in the building, which is at 1900 Queen Anne Ave. N. on the top of Queen Anne.

A 3,500-square-foot plaza contains several local art pieces including a labrador retriever statue by Georgia Gerber, a mosaic of historic events by Lydia Aldridge and a map of Queen Anne. Emerald Bay worked with the Queen Anne Historical Society on the art.

Towne was designed by Tiscareno Associates, and Charter Construction was the general contractor. Other team members include: DCI Engineers, civil engineer; E3RA Inc., geostructural engineer; Page Engineering, surveyor; Abossein Engineering, mechanical engineer, plumbing, and electrical engineer; Brumbaugh & Associates Landscape Architecture, landscape architect; and O'Brien & Co., LEED consultant.

The site was once home to Metropolitan Market. Two previous attempts to develop the property failed because of neighborhood opposition.

“The developer reached out to the community before we started doing anything,” Bob Tiscareno, principal at Tiscareno Associates said in a press release. “The design was based on that dialog.”

The building has a green roof and uses materials that are low in volatile organic compounds. The team designed the building to LEED silver standards. It is projected to use 17.5 percent less energy and 20 percent less water than a typical project.

Emerald Bay Equity is based in Seattle, and has done housing and retail projects on the West Coast for 20 years. Emerald Bay has also managed development for numerous Fortune 500 companies.