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February 25, 2000

Real Estate Buzz

For Stroh Brewery it's one down and one to go in the Pacific Northwest.

According to the Portland Daily Journal of Commerce, the Detroit beer company recently sold the 4.6-acre Blitz Weinhard property in Portland for $19.5 million to Gerding/Edlen Development Co.Peter W. Stott,owner of Columbia Investments, provided financial backing to Gerding/Edlen.

The Portland development company plans to develop the five-block property on the edge of the transforming Pearl District into a mixed-use area of offices, retail and housing. The biggest challenge for Gerding/Edlen will be how to maintain the historic character of the property, the Portland paper reported.

(Actually, we thought the biggest obstacle would be getting rid of that funky beer smell. You ever cleaned up after a beer bust? Yew!)

But I digress. As noted in my succinct and clever lead, this leaves for Stroh the closing of the sale for the Rainier Brewery in Seattle. We have heard that a couple details are left to mop up before the buyer, Benaroya Capital Co., completes the transaction.

One is rumored to be an environmental issue; the other is that Sound Transit, which has said it may buy the west side of the property for a lite beer (we mean light rail) maintenance base, is balking at the cost of the property. Land prices in the close-in Seattle neighborhood have been skyrocketing, and the agency that is building, or trying to build, the region's new mass transit system, already is over budget.

Larry Benaroya says closing will occur later this spring. He added that Tully's Coffee already has moved its new headquarters into the brewery facility on the east side of the Airport Way.

As for the rumors about Sound Transit and environmental issues, he said: "Unfortunately, specific details of the transaction are subject to a confidentiality agreement we and the seller have signed."

Oh, those crazy Californians... You know how some notions that start in Golden State slowly creep northward? Well, Mr. and Ms. Real Estate Broker, try this one on for size: The Antioch City Council is mulling an ordinance that would require your colleagues to disclose just how hard it is to travel to and from work during rush hour.

City officials said they came up with the idea after hearing complaints from buyers who were unaware of the horrendous traffic until after they moved in. (Like they didn't notice before?) The ordinance would also require that home buyers be notified that schools in the area are overcrowded.

The proposed law, according to the San Francisco Chronicle, says people can expect commutes of up to three hours in the morning and evening, depending on where in the Bay Area they work.

And how do real estate types feel about this? One, surprisingly, doesn't object. A development company's marketing director told the Chronicle she would welcome the disclosure requirement. Potential buyers already are told about the traffic snarls, she noted, adding that the reality is it's important to have the information.

How much would you pay for a loft in an old warehouse with graffiti on the walls?

$799,900?

No?

Guess that shows how totally unhip you are.

Monique Lofts, the Kauri Investments project that has received all kinds of press attention in the last year or so, is letting everyone know the top offers the company is receiving on units. The company's posting the data on the Web.

In case you've missed it (and if you have, you need to get out more) Kauri bought the abandoned four-story furniture warehouse at 1024 E. Pike St., for $1.5 million and is converting it into 28 condos. Kauri decided to leave the building's character, including some of the more artful graffiti be.

The Seattle developer is marketing the condos using CD ROM and the Web, which lists the highest offer made on each site. As of Thursday, the top offers ranged from $199,900 to that $799,900.

"In a traditional system, no one know what others have bid," said Kauri senior project manager Scott Nodland. "This way you know where you rate."

It's worth the money, you know, to live in the midst of this cornucopia of coolness. According to the Web site, the Monique is within walking distance of both The Pink Zone, which is the best place in town to buy "a Street Fighter Bra," and the Seawolf Saloon, which is the best place in town to see a drunken scenster. These Best of Seattle tidbits are not made up; they are compliments of our friendly colleagues at The Seattle Weekly.

This has nothing to do with real estate, per se, but it's too good to let slip by without comment. Reuters reported Thursday that the United States and about a dozen other countries will work together to track any computer system failures sparked by the leap day next week.

Unlike the Y2K issue, where the use of only two digits to signify the year was standard practice, the potential leap year problem results from systems misunderstanding the rule for when an extra day is added to the calendar.

But never fear, the $50 million information coordination center that the White House set up to track all those Y2K glitches will be operation from Feb. 28 to March 1.



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