Downtown apartments and lofts. (to rent, condos, new home) - Seattle area - Washington (WA) -Seattle and King County Suburbs - City-Data Forum

Guessimaseahawknow · 09-15-2012, 05:54 AM

Hi.

My wife and I are relocating from New York City in January. By then we'll have a 3 month baby. Obviously this isn't the bst time to move but such is life.

After researching the hell out of Queen Anne and Ballard, my wife and I feel like its maybe a good idea to rent in the city first, get used to our surroundings and choose a hood proper then.

Now we are looking downtown and looking for anyone else that looked for loft like spaces or nice condos with any wisdom to impart. We have a budget of around 3200. Anyone know much about the Denny/corona lofts? The Cobb? I like the look of the Rollin st flats as well. We have pretty awesome space here in Brooklyn, but it's not huge. We'd like 2 beds/1000+ sft. We're looking for somewhere contemporary and something to ease us gently into our new home.

Wife will be at amazon, i work from home, any one of the downtown hoods will work for us.

Thank you in advance for any leads or advice. Much appreciated.

SitoUK · 09-15-2012, 07:19 AM

I walk past Rolling Street flats every day when I walk to work (guess where that is...) and the place looks very nice form the outside. The obvious benefit is that your wife can walk to work in around 10 minutes (assuming she works at the SLU campus). Personally I find the area a little characterless. SLU used to be mainly warehouses and industrial, now it's mainly office buildings, most of them Amazon. There are a few restaurants there but all fairly new and 'corporate', to me this part of town hasn't got much character and is pretty much dead after office hours. Proximity to the office is great but I would not want to live here, all depends on your priorities of course. You could look into lower Queen Anne or the western parts of Capitol Hill, those are 'real' neighborhoods and the walk to SLU is only marginally longer. Bike ride is an option too, all the Amazon buildings have bike storage and lockers.

Mousetron · 09-15-2012, 12:17 PM

My husband and I have been in a 1 bedroom/den at Rollin St for about 3 months and we love it. $3200 will possibly get you a 2 bedroom apartments on one of the lower floors. If I recall correctly the 2 bedroom apartments all face west unless there are any N/E, S/E corner ones. The west view is lovely - mountains, Space Needle and Denny Park, while the east view of a construction site (thank goodness for the double-paned windows) and offices leaves a bit to be desired!

We toured a couple of the 2 bedroom apartments (I think it the 4th floor one was $3400 and the 7th floor one was $3600, but I could be misremembering) and they were stunning. The only reason we decided against them was that the contract said rent could increase by up to 10% a year which would quickly have priced us over what we were comfortable paying. So that's something to keep in mind if you plan on renting for awhile.

The kitchen is a dream to cook in. My husband loves that the cupboards open upwards (so he doesn't hit his head), there's a gas stove, convection oven, lots of power points and ample storage and counter space (especially the apartments with built-in islands). The kitchen was by far the nicest kitchen we looked at, which was important to me because I cook a lot.

There's a lot of storage in general. I think all the 2 bedrooms come with walk-in robes, but even in the 1 bedrooms the wardrobes use a lot of vertical storage. It's all very liveable - my husband and I both want to be able to transport this apartment to Australia when we move back!

Not all of the apartments have high ceilings, if that's an important factor to your loft-like space.

There's a lot of concrete so the sound bounces a bit. That, combined with the open-plan design, can make it quite loud. I think the 2 bedroom apartments have the master bedroom a bit more closed off, but if you are light sleepers or keep very different schedules it might be a problem.

I haven't seen any of the other buildings you mention, but please let me know if you have any specific questions about Rollin St.

Kayela · 09-15-2012, 04:39 PM

Sent you a DM with info on my location (DT, near Olive and 8th) and building.

I also agree with SitoUK that the western part of Cap Hill (I'd stay north of Olive) is super convenient to Amazon and an awesome location in general. It has a very distinctive, vibrant neighborhood feel to it, and is very walkable and transit-friendly.

Guessimaseahawknow · 09-15-2012, 06:40 PM

Wow, thank you guys. So, so helpful. Rollin st really took my eye, it looks close to the kind of apt we have here but boy, 3700 is more expensive than Brooklyn!!! Are we talking 24-3000 for a one bed plus den? How big? My wife is really in love with the idea of being close to work but ultimately if we do find cap hill or a lower queen Anne then it's not out of the question. We also have to factor in my wife's parents living in SF and we'll need room for a blow up bed b/c I'm pretty sure they are going to up in our business at ALL times once baby is here!!!!!
I think our thing is we've lived in the city for so long, we're worried about transitioning.

Mousetron · 09-15-2012, 11:34 PM

The 1 bed/dens are around 900sqf (I think ours is 920) and most of them are in the $2300 range. There are 1000+sqf 1 bedroom apartments on the west-facing side. They don't have dens; just a larger living space and separate laundry/storage room. Apparently they go quite fast though. When we toured the building they were asking $2700ish for one we saw on level 7 (or was it level 9? It's been awhile!) and it rented within a couple of days.

The building has a guest suite you can rent out for $125 a night. We're definitely going to look into that when my in-laws visit next year.

Good luck with the apartment search!

Guessimaseahawknow · 09-16-2012, 06:14 AM

Mousetron. Thank you!!! The idea of a rentable guest suite for my in laws just literally sent me over the edge!!!
You've been a huge, huge help. Enjoy your weekend!

Mousetron · 09-16-2012, 09:10 PM

No problem, glad I could be of help.

Also for what it's worth, I've seen the guest suite thing in a few buildings so it's worth asking about in any of the apartments that you tour. Best of luck with your future move.

Guessimaseahawknow · 01-06-2013, 10:05 PM

LOVED Rollin Street. We took a 2 bed on the 7th floor. Move in next week. Thank you!

certsevtxert · 01-09-2013, 12:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mousetron

The 1 bed/dens are around 900sqf (I think ours is 920) and most of them are in the $2300 range. There are 1000+sqf 1 bedroom apartments on the west-facing side. They don't have dens; just a larger living space and separate laundry/storage room. Apparently they go quite fast though. When we toured the building they were asking $2700ish for one we saw on level 7 (or was it level 9? It's been awhile!) and it rented within a couple of days.

The building has a guest suite you can rent out for $125 a night. We're definitely going to look into that when my in-laws visit next year.

Good luck with the apartment search!

$125 /night??? are you insane???
$2700/month??? RENTING??? have you gone completely bonkers???