Embassy Buys Condo Site for $50M

SEATTLE, CA-Embassy Development Corp. of British Columbia has acquired a full block of land at the Denny Triangle for $49.9 million and plans to develop a twin condo tower project totaling 643 units at the site, according to CB Richard Ellis. John Torrance of CBRE tells GlobeSt.com that Embassy plans to begin construction of the project, which is called Insignia, next year.

Torrance represented both Embassy and the seller, Washington Securities Inc. He notes that the Embassy project on the full block of land, which is an 83,725-sf parcel at Fifth Avenue and Battery Street, will continue the evolution of the Denny Triangle/Belltown area.

The 643 units in the two towers will range from one to three bedrooms and from about 763 sf to 2,650 sf. Torrance notes that the Insignia project is the only full block development of its kind in Seattle and that the open space on the podium level and the rooftop of the two condominium buildings alone will be bigger than any other condo site in the city.

"This site is more than twice as big as any other condominium site in Downtown Seattle," Torrance says. The towers will be 41 stories each and will feature two levels of underground parking plus four levels of above-ground parking.

Torrance tells GlobeSt.com that another unusual feature of the development is that the two towers will be 163 feet apart, a separation that is considerably larger than the distance between towers in other projects. The condominium project will rise on a site that for many years was a Cadillac dealership and later was converted into a theater.

Torrance says that Embassy's commitment to the area should continue to spur development in the western area of the downtown Seattle-to-South Lake Union commercial/residential real estate district. Embassy is known for developing other comparable projects in British Columbia, Canada and San Diego.