News: Belltown apartment building sells as tech fuels Seattle-area market

**Aggregator** · 11-04-2013, 09:53 PM

11-04-2013 08:07 PM

Belltown apartment building sells as tech fuels Seattle-area market

Invesco Real Estate paid just over $41.2 million for the new 206 Bell apartment building in downtown Seattle. It's the second Seattle-area apartment property that the Dallas-based company has acquired in recent weeks.

Invesco Real Estate on Friday bought a new apartment building near the downtown Seattle offices of Amazon.com and other tech companies.
The deal closed two weeks after Invesco paid a record price for a two-tower apartment project in downtown Bellevue near Microsoft offices.
In Seattle, Invesco paid just over $41.2 million for the 122-unit Bell 206 project that opened this summer at Second Avenue and Bell Street in the Belltown neighborhood. That works out to nearly $337,800 per unit.
That’s far less than the record $676,923 per apartment that Invesco paid for two apartment towers in The Bravern mixed-use project in downtown Bellevue on Oct. 15. In addition to apartments and high-end retail, the Bravern has a large office component that's leased to Microsoft.
The Puget Sound region’s old per-unit record was $509,760, which was set in 2012 with the sale of the Aspira high rise in downtown Seattle.
Invesco bought the Belltown building from a limited liability company affiliated with HB Management, the Seattle company that developed the eight-story building. HB principals Jon Breiner and Ed Hewson are developing a phased project with 900 apartments and retail near the future light rail stop in Seattle’s Roosevelt neighborhood.
Dallas-based Invesco Real Estate is part of Invesco Ltd., a global investment management company headquartered in Atlanta. Invesco has been buying and selling office, industrial and apartment properties in the Seattle area for several years. In 2011, the company bought the downtown Seattle Tower, an art deco-style office building at 1218 Third Ave.
In a prepared statement, Invesco Managing Director Greg Kraus said it was coincidental that the Bravern and Bell acquisitions closed within weeks of one another. He added that the company has been investing in Seattle due to the region's economy, and that Invesco will continue to "seek out compelling real estate opportunities" here.