The local media highlights NEXUS and the wildly successful reservation weekend with coverage on KOMO News, The Seattle Times, Puget Sound Business Journal, Seattle PI, Urbnlivn, and Daily Journal of Commerce.
A press release from June 6th confirmed that 244 of the 374 units at NEXUS were reserved over the June 4th and 5th reservation event and sales center debut. As Michael Cannon, Community Sales Director for NEXUS & Broker with Realogics Sotheby’s International Realty (RSIR) said, “NEXUS is turning heads and changing mindsets at the same time.” He continued that “our reservation holders are current renters, move up buyers from other condominiums, as well as downsizing empty nesters and families setting up a second home, student housing, investments and retirement plans. It’s a diverse mix.”
In a television feature and online article, Lindsay Cohen of KOMO 4 News says “the line that stretched down First Avenue in Belltown this weekend wasn’t for a trendy new restaurant, a hot new gadget, or even Seahawks season tickets. It was for a condo building – one that won’t break ground until later this year.” As Dean Jones, President & CEO of RSIR added, “People were wondering if we were giving away iPhones or maybe the Adele concert tickets were returning here. In fact, it was a real estate development.”
On the cover of The Seattle Times today, Mike Rosenberg writes that as “Home prices soar again; some buyers camp out to lay claim to a future condo.” The article interviews Chad Zinda, founder of Metropolist, who “waited in line for four hours to reserve his spot in the building.” As Zinda tells the Times, “I know if I buy in a year or two or three years, the prices are going to be higher,” continuing that “No one got a deal, but part of the bargain is you’re locked in.”
The Puget Sound Business Journal’s Marc Stiles says “based on what unfolded in Belltown early Saturday morning, Seattle is poised for another boom of condominium development.” As of Monday, Dean Jones told the Journal that RSIR had “already had another half dozen reservations.”
As Marco Kronen of the Seattle Condo Review writes in Seattle PI, “what a difference a year can make in our dynamic condo market.” He describes that he “attended a preview event last week, and so far the offering of condos at NEXUS sounds very compelling.”
Matt Goyer of Urbnlivn, who waited in line on Saturday said the Burrard Group’s reservation of 60% of the units at NEXUS represented a number “well exceeding everyone’s predictions.” He even described that he returned to the sales center on Monday “to get an update on what’s left.”
The Daily of Journal Commerce staff, in “Buyers camp out for first shot of condos,” says that assuming the potential buyers move forward with presales this fall, “last weekend’s reservations could lead to more than $200 million in sales.” The article also cites Christian Chan, Executive Vice President of the Burarrd Group, who “said NEXUS will be the first of ‘several significant projects’ for Burrard in this area.”
In Curbed Seattle, Sean Keeley, says “Burrard Group announced that they have accepted 244 ‘first-position, unit-specific reservations for priority presales’ for NEXUS, a 374-unit high-rise condo tower at 1200 Howell Street in downtown Seattle.” And as Keeley points out, “people didn’t just show up for a shot at these new condos. They camped out.”