Greg Nickels' dream to wreck Northgate on track - Thornton Place has yet to sell ONE unit

[LisaM]

As you may know, I think the spate of development around Northgate has been insane - starting with the insanely ugly Northgate North building, which looks like a huge pole barn with brand names spattered all over it, to the addition of huge national big box stores around the edge of the mall (many with no access to the mall; you need to go outside the store to get back inside the mall), to the increase in gang activity spurred by the food court, and now this development over Thornton Creek, which puported to "daylight" the creek (in reality, there is not room enough there for anything but a trickle). Turns out that they haven't sold one of their overpriced units. The project is horribly ugly. My bus stop has been closed for over two years, so we have to wait for the bus in a temporary spot with no roof (and no bus schedule). The construction footprint has been horrible. The buildings look terrible, and about five times larger than the architects' sketches that were circulated. Almost no retail has rented. And now no condos have sold.

I was against this project from the start. The neighborhood I lived in is ruined. The movie theatre will probably make the teen activity worse (I don't suppose there's a chance in hell it will be a Landmark Theatre, so who knows what kind of movies they'll plan on showing). $300K for 600 square feet; are they KIDDING?


http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2008918753_thornton25.html

[sneakythomas]

1. Sorry to hear abou that

I hate to tell you this, but it's going to get worse. I work in multi-family real estate. If they can't sell them as condos they'll rent them as apartments, very likely after the bank takes the project back. This means it will be run by people who care even less about the people who live there than most landlords.

Gang activity and petty crime is increasing in a lot of places, and Northgate looks like its turning into an a$$hole magnet. I haven't been there in some time, just driving past the place hurts my eyes.

PS, I've been lurking here for awhile, but only post once in a while about things that I really care about.

[SeattleGirl]

2. Too bad they (and I mean many owners around here) still insist

on requiring your first-born child to even THINK about moving to a new place.

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to buy a home, but the prices around here are still too high, IMHO.