On the Towne

While the Seattle climate (and I don’t mean the rain) continues to be highly favorable for real estate developers, I thought it would be interesting to look at life among the ruins of the old neighborhood. What’s it like to live in one of the new gentrified luxury apartment units?

The Towne apartment complex is one of four new luxury units, part of the Queen Anne Collection, located on the top of Queen Anne Hill, an area that might be the epicenter of the Seattle boom.  Prior to groundbreaking, community residents tried to block the development of this property, which was formerly the site for Metropolitan Market—a beloved icon in the Upper Queen Anne community for 41 years. The Towne apartments came on the market in May 2014 with the marketing tag line the future of living.

In May 2015, in anticipation of selling my home, I leased a one-bedroom apartment at the Towne. I needed a place to continue to run my P.R. business and at the same time manage the multiple moves required to transition out of a home I had owned for 26 years.

The Towne apartment was tiny. I used the bedroom as the office and a sleeper sofa in the living room did double duty as a bed. At $1,935 a month the rent was pricey, but the other add ons included a parking space, a storage locker, and monthly pet rent of 20 bucks for my cat. The monthly nut fluctuated around $2,250. Plus I had to pay water, sewer and garbage that was monitored by a meter and a separate electric bill to Seattle City Light. All told, I was paying about $2,400 a month to live at the Towne, which was more than my mortgage for either my home in Queen Anne or my home on the Oregon coast. 

I knew I wouldn’t be staying long and signed a short-term lease. I made it clear to the rental manager, Luna T., that the apartment was being used primarily for my business, so I could continue to live and work uninterrupted by swarms of realtors descending upon my home. Luna wrote the name of my business inside of the apartment mail box. My husband and I leased another apartment a few blocks away to store his home gym.  This was not an easy move!

The first day I moved into the Towne apartment, the toilet clogged for no apparent reason. I tried plunging it but had to call for maintenance, which came several hours later. Within a month the toilet clogged again. I went to use the toilet in the 3^rd floor Towne Club Room and found not only was it clogged, but it was overflowing with feces. Later in the day, the maintenance guy told me I had clogged my toilet with a string of dental floss. I soon learned not to flush toilet paper and waste down the toilet at the same time, but to flush separately and in stages to prevent a full blockage that would cause the toilet to overflow. I made it a habit to plunge the toilet after each time it was used. Fortunately, the sale of my home had not yet closed, so I had a back up toilet.

The apartment building experienced some minor crime: car break-ins, apartments were broken into and even the leasing office was ransacked. Occasionally, we received emails alerting us of trash being left in the hall. But these things are a normal part of apartment life.

The Towne apartment was noisy. Delivery trucks from nearby Safeway and and Trader Joe unpacked palettes at seemingly random hours. In the middle of the night, metal and steel banged and thundered from the loading docks. People on the street spilled out onto the street after hours. Loud yelling erupted into fights and sometimes police were called to intervene.  My husband and I jokingly referred to the noise as coming from the “mean streets of Queen Anne.”

The noise of the city is the price of living in an urban area with convenient shopping and easy bus access. It was other noise that kept me awake.  There was a persistent loud gurgling in the kitchen pipes that whined, hissed and chugged at random hours of the day and night. I still don’t know the cause except the Towne apartments had water issues. On three separate occasions, there was no hot water for up to eight hours. The two elevators that serviced the five-story building frequently broke down, which wasn’t an issue for me to walk down four flights of steps, but it was an obstacle for the elderly, a few of them in walkers, and the parents of small children and infants.

Then I had a had a minor catastrophe. On August 20^th, when I was returning from my Pilates class, I turned my key in the front entrance door and it stuck. The door would not open. I tried turning the key numerous times but the door would not budge. I turned the key once more and heard the door click to unlatch, but it was still stuck. I pulled on the door handle. The entire handle flew off. The force sent me falling backward in the air where I landed on the pavement with the broken door handle lying nearby on the ground. A woman passing by helped me up from the ground and asked me if I was okay. I felt sore and stunned but not injured. She cautioned me that some injuries are not apparent right away. I went into the leasing office and alerted Luna T. She simply let me into the building from the leasing entrance door into the building.

My husband and I were stunned to see there was no follow-up. No incident report. No call from the leasing office to see if I was okay. 

By the summer, I noticed the side entrance hallway off of Crockett Street had cracks in the wall. Too many to count. And unusual, given that the building was just over a year old. Within several days, the hallway was newly repainted to cover up the cracks.  In early September through October, the garage was quartered off—four parking spaces at a time—by orange cones while 12 inch holes were drilled into the walls and refilled with new concrete. 

Just in passing, I talked to employees of neighboring businesses about my experience with the Towne. A manager at Trader Joe’s, which is located in the retail space on the ground floor, told me they had water leakage problems in their warehouse. A manager at the Massage Envy, located in the Towne’s sister building Sweetbrier, told me they had also experienced water issues. This was during a time when Seattle had experienced one of the longest dry spells on record.

As I approached the end of the lease, it was time to file my year-end taxes for my business. My accountant asked me to get a 1099 from the Towne, since I was declaring the lease as a business expense. The Towne refused to give me a 1099. In fact, they cited a clause in the rental agreement that said I could not run a business out of my apartment. They failed to read the portion that dealt with a home-based business and internet connectivity.  It was as if I was a criminal and dealing drugs instead of running a 15-year old P.R business. They ignored that it was management who had listed my business name on my mailbox and that I had been forthright from the onset in giving them information about my business and the reason why I was renting an apartment. For three weeks, I persisted and suggested they check with their legal department. Finally, they provided me with a 1099.

While I’m now happily ensconced in a new home with my husband and it’s business as usual, there is still no final settlement from the Towne. My security deposit has yet to be returned. They sent me statement via email which shows incredible final fees for water, sewer and garbage, even though all of those fees had already been paid monthly. Out of an $600 deposit, I only stand to gain $239. If I had not paid for a professional cleaning service to clean an already pristine apartment, I would have ended up owing them money. There are hidden fees in their accounting that defy explanation. If I needed my security deposit to pay for my next place to live, there would have been nothing left.

One Towne tenant reported on Yelp: While things look new, under the surface they are poor quality. The craftsmanship is really lacking. Handles on cabinets aren't on straight, cabinet doors fall of their hinges. Dishwasher wasn't turned on so we ran it dry the first time. Light switches are at different heights in every room. Fan in the bathroom randomly decides to work or not. Dishwasher is tiny, and in a location where you can't open cupboards next to it. Appliances are the cheapest models you could find. Doors in the bathroom slam into each other.

On Yelp, there is a recent wave of testimonials that are glowing accounts of how great it is to live in the Towne. As an experienced P.R. practitioner, I have seen reviews like this in the past, and I can assure you they are planted to counter and bury the pattern of bad but authentic reviews.

According to data posted on downtownseattle.com, downtown Seattle’s construction boom continues with a record level of investment heading into 2016. In all, active projects in 2015 represented $5 billion in construction. This is higher than any year since tracking began. While this data only calculates development in downtown Seattle, it doesn’t take into account the massive development taking place in the adjacent urban neighborhoods, including Queen Anne, Magnolia, South Lake Union and Ballard. The question remains: Who is overseeing the quality of construction for these buildings? The construction is so shoddy that it is doubtful that they will be able to stand the test of time and serve the Queen Anne community.  If the Towne is indeed the future of living, then we’re all in trouble. The short term greed of real estate developers has left us with the long-term spoils of their victory.