November 13, 2020

Lowe and Oaktree put Suncadia on the block

Photo by Suncadia [enlarge]

The resort component of Suncadia is for sale, not the individual homes and condos.

Individual homes at Suncadia, the roughly 6,300-acre resort community near Cle Elum, will remain in private hands. But owners Lowe and Oaktree Capital is selling the rest of it — including undeveloped home sites. JLL is the broker.

The Daily Record, of Ellensburg, first reported the news last month. Speaking for the joint venture officially dubbed New Suncadia (after Oaktree joined the ownership in 2012), managing director Roger Beck told the paper that three golf courses, 18-room Inn at Suncadia, Glade Springs Spa, swim and fitness center, restaurants and conference center are part of the unpriced offering. That also includes about 5,000 acres of open space — including the golf courses — that won't be developed.

Suncadia now has about 500 homes in neighborhoods including Black Nugget, Nelson Preserve, Prospector, Prospector's Reach and Rope Rider. The three golf courses are Prospector, Rope Rider and the private Tumble Creek.

Not part of the offering are the Trailhead Condominiums and the 223 condos in the Lodge at Suncadia — where Portals and the 16,000-square-foot conference center are located; those latter portions are part of the larger offering.

Suncadia began life in the late 1990s as MountainStar, initially under developer Trendwest, the local subsidiary of Jeld-Wen, a regional developer of mountain town communities. The latter company started out making windows and doors in Oregon, then diversified.

Jeld-Wen sold Trendwest's interest in the project to Lowe in 2003, about the same time construction began. The development took its current name around 2004. Jeld-Wen originally bought the land from Plum Creek Timber Co. in 1996 for $15 million.

Jeld-Wen fell into financial distress during the last recession, when some Suncadia condos were auctioned off, and following the 2011 death of founder Richard Wendt. Most of its resorts were sold during that period, and Suncadia ended up in the hands of Lowe, Pacific Realty Associates and Canadian private equity firm Onex. The latter two parties then apparently sold to Oaktree in 2012

In our market, Lowe is currently building about 549 units at Yesler Terrace. Earlier this year it opened the 286-unit Talisman at Redmond Town Center. Oaktree, also based in Los Angeles, has mainly been a buyer and seller of office properties in our region.