Bothell, already one of the tightest apartment markets in the region, just got tighter.

On Friday the University of Washington bought the Beardslee Cove Apartments near the Bothell campus
and plans to convert it to student housing, taking 90 units off the market.

The UW paid $10.7 million for the 1986 property, and plans to spend up to $1.3 million on upgrades. A UW
official said the university has hired Coast Real Estate Services. The work is to be done by September.
David Will of Beardslee Cove Apartments LLC was the seller.

Meanwhile, more developers are homing in on downtown Bothell where the apartment vacancy rate is 2.6
percent, according to the latest data from Seattle-based Dupre + Scott Apartment Advisors.

• Last week, Weidner Apartment Homes acquired its first development site in Bothell, paying $2.6 million
for just under 1.9 acres at 18107 Bothell Way N.E. George Marshall Paris was the seller. Plans are not final,
and Weidner Senior Acquisition Manager Kevin Colard said his company could acquire more land for the
project. Development is “a long ways out,” he said, and it could be six months before planning is complete.

• Kirkland-based Weidner also is among the developers pursuing a nearly 6-acre site being sold by the city.
Two other developers, Cam West and Mill Creek Residential Trust, are in the running to buy the land, which
is at the junction of state routes 522 and 527. The city plans to select a winner May 31. Cam West is a home
builder, and Mill Creek is a new company that buys and develops apartments.

• Wallace Properties of Bellevue is finalizing negotiations to acquire a site where it's planning 225
apartments and about 10,000 square feet of retail. CollinsWoerman is the architect. Wallace Properties
President Kevin Wallace said Rafn will likely be the contractor. “I would say in another month or two we'll
be ready on this project.” The property is in the 18500 block of 98th Avenue Northeast, next to where
McMenamins will turn an old school into a hotel, restaurant, pub and spa.

• Several months ago, Pacific Northern Construction and Senior Housing Assistance Group, or SHAG,
announced plans to develop about 250 units of mixed-income apartments and 11,000 square feet of retail in
a project called Boulevard Place at 18221 Bothell Way N.E. When the project was announced, Pacific
Northern President Bryan Park expected construction to start in early 2012.

• Vulcan Real Estate is working with the city on a $90 million project that will include a new city hall and up
to 100,000 square feet of mixed-use space. That space may include housing, retail, office and a hotel.
A number of forces are aligned to spur development in Bothell. The apartment vacancy rate is unusually low
due to a lack of new construction plus several condo conversions several years ago, said real estate broker
Joe Levin of Colliers International. Dupre + Scott reports that since 2001, only about 170 apartments have
been added to Bothell's inventory.

Levin said people from Everett have been moving south to be closer to job centers. Bothell's a good choice
for families where one wage earner works on the Eastside and the other in Seattle.
Jim Klinger is a broker with Kidder Mathews who worked on Weidner's latest Bothell acquisition with listing
agent Corey Crain of Kellers Williams. Klinger said his wife, Diane, is a residential real estate agent “and she
takes [buyers] to Bothell all the time.”

Klinger and others expect demand for housing in and around Bothell will keep growing because of tolls on
the Highway 520 bridge and Boeing winning the $35 billion Air Force tanker contract. When the deal was
announced in February, Boeing said the contract will mean 50,000 jobs in several cities including Everett.
The UW has projected the student population at the Bothell campus will grow from the equivalent of 2,880
full-time students last fall to 6,000 by 2020.

Kevin Wallace said another factor driving investments is the redevelopment of downtown Bothell. Earlier
this year, $80 million of public work was under way, just the start of what eventually will be $150 million in
infrastructure improvements, such as straightening streets and turning roads into boulevards.

“There's really some there there,” said Wallace. “It's exciting to see other [developers] jump into the fray.”

By Mark Stiles
Journal Staff Apartments
http://www.djc.com/news/re/12028916.html