Published April 2005

Real Estate Briefs

Bothell building sells for $12.8 million
Seattle-based Mastro Properties has sold a 65,000-square-foot office building at 3700 Monte Villa Parkway in Bothell for $12.8 million. The buyer was MVP Centre Corp., also based in the Seattle area.

State Farm Insurance recently set up a regional customer service center in the building, and another tenant is to move into the remaining space.

Mastro bought the building in spring 2004, when it was empty, for $6.2 million.

Lynnwood Center sold
for nearly $30 million
A national investment firm has paid nearly $30 million to buy the Lynnwood Center shopping complex at one of the state’s busiest intersections.

BlackRock Inc., which bought the property at the southeast corner of 196th Street SW and Highway 99, is among the nation’s largest publicly held investment management firms.

With 165,000 square feet of space, Lynnwood Center hosts major tenants such as Safeway, JoAnn Fabrics and Hollywood Video.

Before its purchase by BlackRock for $29.6 million, the shopping center had been owned by Seattle’s Michael Sandorffy and partners. Reynolds Haas and Paul Sleeth of Colliers International in Seattle represented the sellers.

Jim Alexander of Madison Marquette, the shopping center’s leasing agent, said the center is leased except for two small spaces totaling about 3,500 square feet.

Everett selected as site
for artist housing
Everett has been selected by a national arts group as a place to develop affordable and sustainable space for artists.

Minnesota-based Artspace has completed 27 such projects across the country and has more than two dozen in the works.

The Arts Council of Snohomish County will partner with the city of Everett and the Snohomish County Economic Development Council to spearhead the project with Artspace. The Everett project will include affordable spaces for artists to live, work, display and produce art, as well as space for a new home for the Arts Council of Snohomish County and arts-related commercial space.

With the late February announcement, Artspace put the Everett project on the fast track, with a start date of March 1 and the first order of business being the Regional Artist Survey of Housing and Art Production Needs.

Home sales up 19 percent,
listings down 25 percent
The housing market in Snohomish County continued to soar in February despite fewer choices and higher prices, with sales (936) rising 19 percent in comparison to February 2004, according to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.

Countywide, there were 1,641 listings in February, a drop of more than 25 percent compared to a year ago, the listing service reported.

Dwindling choices gave more control to sellers, who received much higher prices this year than in February 2004. The combined median price for single-family homes and condominiums was $249,400 in February, an increase of nearly 11 percent from a year ago.

Those prices were still significantly lower than in King County, where the combined median shot up nearly 13 percent to $309,950. Median means half the homes sold for more and half sold for less.

Despite the higher prices, sales showed no signs of a slowdown in Snohomish County, where pending sales (1,542) rose by more than 20 percent. Pending sales are deals that didn’t go through closing by month’s end.

Brown & Cole selling
three local grocery stores
Brown & Cole Stores is selling three supermarkets in Snohomish County as the company struggles with Wal-Mart’s expansion into the region’s grocery business.

Thrifty Foods, located at 8901 271st St. NW in Stanwood, the Smokey Point Food Pavilion at 17020 Smokey Point Blvd. and the smaller Food Pavilion at 146 Haller St. in Arlington are among eight Washington state stores Brown & Cole plans to shed in the coming months.

The three local locations employ 128 people, according to company figures.

Because Brown & Cole doesn’t own the properties its stores occupy, it is selling the equipment and inventory and building leases at each site.

Spokeswoman Sue Cole said the company has received interest from potential buyers and expects to have sales completed by the end of May.

Back to the top/April 2005 Main Menu