A 41-story apartment tower in the heart of Seattle's South Lake Union district sold for $322.7 million, an eye-popping $700,000 per unit, in the highest-priced apartment trade on record in the Emerald City.
Ponte Gadea USA, the real estate investment firm controlled by Spanish retail mogul and billionaire Amancio Ortega, bought the 461-unit Kiara at 111 Terry Ave. North in December from Toronto-based Oxford Properties Group.
The total price was the highest on record paid for an apartment tower in Seattle, prompting a panel of real estate professionals familiar with the market to judge the deal worthy of a 2023 CoStar Impact Award.
The sale beat the previous record set when Oxford Properties paid $320 million for Kiara in July 2020, two years after a joint venture of Holland Partner Group and North America Seksui House completed the tower.
About the project: Kiara, at 440 feet, is one of the tallest residential towers in Seattle and is widely regarded as one of the preeminent apartment towers on the West Coast. The property was 95% occupied at the time of the purchase by Ponte Gadea, the firm’s third major acquisition in Seattle.
In 2019, Ponte Gadea paid $740 million for the Troy Block office complex, which is part of the vast corporate campus in Seattle's South Lake Union area created by the e-commerce giant Amazon.
What the judges said: The sale of the tower was “a very impactful transaction to get closed, given the overall state of the capital markets in 2022,” said Tyler Barth of Los Angeles-based Kilroy Realty.
They made it happen: Joseph Smolen, Jason Flynn, Geoff Boler, Will Purcell, Cooper Engst and Eugene Chong of Eastdil Secured exclusively represented the seller. Eli Hanacek, Mark Washington, Jon Hallgrimson and Kyle Yamamoto of CBRE served as advisers for the buyer.
