Matt Griffin, managing partner of Pine Street Development, says the new symphony hall, expanded convention center and other cultural amenities in Seattle make the prospects for downtown living exciting. A long-time resident of Montlake, Griffin says he and his wife look forward to living in a condo at the newly renovated Seaboard Building at Fourth and Pike, one of his firm’s signature projects.

Pine Street Development bought the Seaboard from Nordstrom a few years ago and completed renovation of the 90-year-old, 100,000-square-foot building this year. So far, 14 of the 24 condo units have sold, says Griffin. The one- and two-bedroom units, ranging in size from 1,000 to 1,600 square feet, are selling for $500,000 to $800,000, or $500 per square foot. Condos take up the top five floors, office space is on the next five floors and retail space is on the street level. The building is scheduled to open in April.

“It was a real gamble for us,” he says. Converting the landmark building into a mixed-use, high-tech facility required some tweaking. “We were asked to do creative things ... to meld to current building code,” he says. The building is wired with CAT-5 lines, a feature that Griffin says will allow him to occasionally work from home.

Regarding the firm’s performance in 2000, Griffin says its three areas of focus -- retail, office and residential -- have all been healthy. The Nordstrom renovation and Pacific Place project have overall been a success, he says. Pacific Place tenant J. Peterman Co. went out of business this year, but says Griffin, “there are other people who want to be in Seattle.”

He predicts few changes in the firm’s retail tenant base this year, adding that the expanded convention center could diversify the pool. He isn’t gloomy about Seattle’s dot-carnage, saying the vacancies “will relieve some pressures” on what has been a red-hot office market.

“I see the market becoming more normal,” he says. On the residential side, he says developers, in general, will continue to create housing downtown “in places you didn’t used to see it,” such as the Pike/Pine corridor. He also predicts that the region’s worsening traffic congestion will make commuting less feasible and stimulate more demand for housing downtown.

This year, Pine Street “will spend more time managing their current assets than developing new ones.”