Pittsburgh Condominiums

Challenge

The Pittsburgh is an historic 1920’s apartment-to-condominium conversion with 31 homes. It’s located in the Uptown neighborhood of Queen Anne, south of the Seattle Center in a mixed urban neighborhood of retail, services, offices, apartments and condominiums.

The original developer lost the last 13 homes of the project to foreclosure. A mezzanine lender that was in the original deal called on Leslie Williams to see if they could sell the remaining homes and still retain all or a portion of their original investment. Leslie worked with Steve Snider to conduct an extensive feasibility so the investor could make an informed decision as to whether they should buy the property at the courthouse steps or just let it go. They also went through each remaining home and estimated the cost to bring the homes back to the market with estimated gross sellout that showed them it was worth buying the project as a good portion of their investment would be retained.

Pittsburgh had been on the market for 21 months, then back off sitting idle for 3 months. By this time, the project and homes needed freshening up, both in the eyes of the market and literally speaking, but on a shoestring budget.

Financing was also a challenge as FHA was not an option on a property with minimal reserves and the price points were geared to the typical FHA buyer.
There was an additional challenge with parking, as only 5 of the remaining 13 homes had an assigned parking space.

Solution

Leslie Williams and Steve Snider worked with the seller to give the homes new life, suggesting cost-efficient improvements like fresh paint and brighter lights for the hallways; regular cleaning of the homes; and staging and more light for the model home. For a marketing budget of just $25,000, the in-house marketing and graphics team re-launched Pittsburgh with a Website, fresh signage and ads in the Seattle Times and Queen Anne News.

To get the project financed so deals could close, the marketing team “dialed for dollars,” calling lenders until they found one that would agree to portfolio alternative minimum down loans for Pittsburgh. The team also worked with the seller so they could adequately fund the reserves to facilitate closings.
As a final solution, Leslie and Steve negotiated the availability of parking at the apartment building across the street from Pittsburgh, and were able to offer leased monthly garage parking to potential homeowners and take away that objection.

Results

In one of the worst real estate markets in decades, Matrix Real Estate sold the final 13 homes in 13 months at an average of $350/square foot, with the last home closing in April 2010.