Legacy Partners to convert
Mukilteo apartments
to condos

By Kimberly Hilden
SCBJ Assistant Editor

The condominium conversion trend has come to Mukilteo with the recent announcement that almost half of the 558 units at On the Green Apartments will go on the market as condos by midsummer.

The apartment complex, located in the Harbour Pointe neighborhood, changed hands in late January, when California-based Legacy Partners purchased On the Green from a private partnership for $69 million. Three months later, the new owner said it would convert 264 of the apartment units to condos, dubbed Front9, with unit prices beginning in the mid-$100,000s.

“Front9 Condominiums is building on the exceptional success and popularity of On the Green Apartments,” said Kerry Nicholson, senior vice president of Legacy Partners’ Seattle-area office, in announcing the condo conversion.

“It offers a rare, affordable opportunity for condominium buyers to live in an open and serene setting, with views of one of the best public golf courses in the state,” Nicholson said, referring to Harbour Pointe Golf Course.

Legacy Partners’ decision to convert just a portion of On the Green was based on two factors, said John Hatton, project lead for Front9: the risk of introducing too many condos into the marketplace combined with a rebounding apartment market.

As part of the conversion, Legacy Partners is adding a new community gazebo and gathering space with a fire pit near the 14 buildings that make up Front9, Hatton said.

Other amenities featured at the complex, which was built in the early 1990s, include indoor and outdoor swimming pools, a fitness center, a half-court indoor basketball court, outdoor playground equipment, and a spa and sauna.

Interior condo improvements will be decided by the consumer, with a choice of standard and upgraded packages, Hatton said. The standard package includes such improvements as new vinyl flooring and laminate countertops for the kitchen and new carpeting throughout, while the upgraded package includes new hardwood flooring, granite countertops and stainless-steel finish kitchen appliances in the kitchen and higher-grade carpeting throughout.

“It’s a real nice high-end package,” he said.

While the condos will go on sale to the public in July, current residents of On the Green will be offered the first opportunity to buy, said Hatton, adding that overall feedback from apartment residents has been positive.

“Legacy held a meeting with apartment residents, many of whom were happy that the purchase price would allow them to buy their own home,” he said.

Front9 will include one-, two- and three-bedroom condos ranging in size from 660 square feet to 1,200 square feet. Price for the condos will begin at about $160,000 and could top out at about $300,000, Hatton said.

The Front9 development is the second condo conversion project in the Puget Sound area for Legacy Partners, which announced in late 2005 plans to convert Seattle’s historic Queen Anne High School into upscale condominiums.

The number of condo conversions in the region has been growing in recent years, with some 6,500 units expected to be converted this year in the Seattle market alone, according to a recent report on the King and Snohomish County apartment market by Colliers International.

The reason behind the trend: a tight, expensive housing market.

“The high price of houses is fueling the condominium conversion boom,” said Tom Cain, head of Seattle-based apartment research firm Cain Inc. “So it’s basically an affordability issue. A lot of purchasers of condo units that have previously been apartment rentals are renters.”

According to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, which tracks the housing market in Western Washington, the median price for a single-family home in Snohomish County in April was $329,900, up almost 18 percent from a year ago. Meanwhile, the median price for a condo in April was $199,950, up nearly 8 percent from a year ago.

For more information on Front9, go online to www.Front9Condos.com.

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