September 6, 2024

Keys go to lender at Bay Vista tower in Belltown

Photo via JLL [enlarge]

The north condo tower, with its individual owners, wasn’t part of the podium deal.

Earlier this year, the office and retail portions of Belltown's Bay Vista tower — completely separate from the condos above — went into foreclosure.

An auction was set for August, but no buyer emerged.

That podium levels of the building, at 2815 Second Ave., found a new owner this week: the lender. King County recorded the assignment of the 2019 loan (via an LLC) from Varde Partners back to Varde. A special servicer for the loan, Trimont, expedited the zero-dollar transaction.

A keys-to-the-lender deal was not unexpected in today's distressed office climate. The roughly 110,000 square feet on the building's lower five floors sold in 2016, via an LLC, to Madison Marquette. It then paid about $33.6 million. Three years later, not long before the pandemic, it took out a $36 million loan from Varde, which is based in Minneapolis.

Colliers has been tasked with filling the offices. Leasing materials indicate considerable vacant space. Two retail bays, of five, are also empty, with West Coast Commercial Realty as the broker there. Tenants include a dry cleaner, framing shop and dental practice.

Bounded by Broad and Clay streets, the 24-story Bay Vista was developed on that half block in 1982 or earlier. The county says it has 78 (or 74) individually owned condos in the north tower, with amenity space atop the podium. Underground parking, for owners and tenants, has about 173 stalls.

Madison Marquette rates the commercial space at 119,793 square feet, more than the county estimate. Lease Crutcher Lewis built Bay Vista.

Are there 74 or 78 units above? There may have been some past combinations in the residences. A two-story penthouse on the topmost level sold five years ago for $12 million, which was then a local record. The condos were actually converted from 69 original apartments, as the DJC reported in the 1990s.