From Apartment To Condo (And Back Again?)

The Post Intelligencer has an article today on the pesky old buildings that dot Seattle and the heroes who have been swooping in to convert them to condos. No need to tear down a perfectly good old building, necessarily, although that sometimes works too, but you can only wring so much out of renters before you shuffle them off to Kent or something where they belong and get some buyers in there.

"We can offer things that are priced substantially below the new construction here and have the architectural advantage," Rankin said. "I feel that if there is a real need, it is for inexpensive owned housing in the city."

On its Web site, Pioneer Property Group says it makes money on niche developments, but also has a "social mission" to "increase the density and supply of urban housing without adverse impact on our architectural heritage or the urban landscape."

Well, sure, when you put it that way it does sound kind of good. The Seattle Bubble blog isn't having it, though, and even goes so far as to claim that condo conversions are the third or fourth horseman of the apocalypse:

It's not a bad model, it's an insane one. Building a new condo from scratch would take several years, where a condo conversion can be done in a matter of months. Condo conversions usually signal the end of a housing boom cycle as they're seen as a "fast buck" before the Scheiße hits the ventilator.

No matter how you sugar coat it, renters will need to find a new place to live. Worse yet, I predict these units will "repartment" themselves less than one year after they're finished. I have nothing against capitalism and during a "normal" market I can see how this would work. Unfortunately this developer is just going to waste everyone's time.

Of course, when your blog is named "Seattle Bubble" you're kind of backed into a corner in terms of how you view any development news..