As seen in The Seattle Times.
SEATTLE — NEXUS, a high-rise project at the northeastern corner of downtown, will open for sales March 18 beginning at 11 a.m.
The sales center and model home are located at 2609 First Ave., and prospective homebuyers are encouraged to tour early for the best selection and introductory prices that will range from less than $500,000 to more than $3 million.
NEXUS is set to deliver homes by mid-2019, and brokers anticipate that the inventory will sell at a rapid pace considering it is the only new supply of high-rise condos expected until the next decade, says Christian Chan, the executive vice president of Burrard Group, the developer of NEXUS.
“Our development team and our homebuyers share a great sense of timing,” he says. “The market fundamentals are extraordinary for new condominiums, yet surprisingly, NEXUS is the only opportunity.”
Chan points to recently completed high-rise condominiums, such as Insignia in Belltown and LUMA on First Hill, which are sold out. And resales have been selling at an average of 18 percent higher than presale pricing, according to Northwest Multiple Listing Service data.
“That’s not surprising consider resale inventory in downtown Seattle has averaged just 40 homes with a median asking price of around $1 million,” Chan says, noting a pent-up demand for ownership, especially at price points below $1 million where inventory remains in short supply.
“The challenge is these new condo towers take up to four years from inception to completion, so buyers really need to plan ahead,” says Dean Jones, president and CEO of Realogics Sotheby’s International Realty, the listing firm for NEXUS. “The good news is you can lock in your price today at NEXUS and use 2019 dollars, and an initial 5 percent earnest deposit will hold your position.”
The kitchen in the model home includes Quartz countertops and full-height backsplash.
Burrard has built out a 5,000-squre-foot sales center that includes a full-scale, fully furnished two-bedroom model home. With interiors designed by Weber Thompson Architects, the living space features many of the attributes that will be available at NEXUS, including oversize windows with no exterior columns, and European-inspired in-line kitchens (with option island displayed) with Quartz countertops and full-height backsplash.
Built-in appliances with matching cabinet panels include a German-engineered Blomberg refrigerator and dishwasher, Italian-designed Fulgor Milano range and cooktop with induction heating, and Blanco undercounter sink with Grohe facet.
The living rooms host wide-plank, engineered hardwood floors with the option of extending these into the bedrooms. Buyers can choose from three color schemes and personalize their storage with California Closets.
An artist’s rendering shows NEXUS at its future location at 1200 Howell St., in the northeastern corner of downtown Seattle. (Weber Thompson Architects)
A collection of home entertainment, security, climate control and window covering offerings by Wipliance is available. And the exclusive-to-project app “XEN” being developed by Sirqul ties in preferred vendor hardware and controls with a touch of the button, and connects homeowners to participate in building and neighborhood amenities and special offerings.
“NEXUS will establish a new product category for digital concierge-like services,” says Chan. “We could have debuted this vision in Vancouver, San Francisco or Manhattan, but we chose Seattle because this city is smart, innovative and highly adoptive of new technology. We are very focused on keeping XEN future-proof so the platform can evolve as the building does. Our sales center and model home are effectively a living lab where we can test ideas and develop the app real time with our homebuyers.”
A scale model of the tower and another context model of the community help to convey the significance of the architectural additions to the burgeoning East Village neighborhood. Burrard also partnered with Z-Axon to leverage Microsoft’s HoloLens technology to allow prospective homebuyer to be immersed in an augmented reality experience where they can see the physical scale model of NEXUS but also a collection of holograms that surround it.
