For would-be homeowners, there's lots to like in South Seattle

New homes, low price (by this city’s standards), near downtown, light rail access, reduced crime ...

By SAM SKOLNIK
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

For Jarrod Lewis, it was simple: After years of living in a Mercer Island condo, "I wanted my own four walls, my own front yard and back yard."

Although he had hoped to stay on the Eastside, the new homes at Othello Station, part of the NewHolly housing development in South Seattle, looked too good to pass up.

The price was right, he said, and the fact that the home was new meant no lingering concerns about having to fix up an aging structure.

Lewis, a 34-year-old King County employee, said he also likes the "up-and-coming neighborhood."

Othello Station and its neighborhood -- where a former public housing project was torn down and chronic crime has dropped in recent years -- in fact is a highly popular home market, if the past weekend was any indication.

Othello Station's home developer, Polygon Northwest, advertised that it would place 10 homes on sale Saturday morning.

More than a half-dozen would-be home-buying families camped out a full two days in advance of the sale.

When the doors opened at 8:30 a.m., 30 people walked in, said David Key, Othello Station's community sales manager. By 10 a.m., he and his colleagues had made 11 sales, after opening up the books to sell eight more homes than they had planned. By yesterday afternoon, all 18 houses had been sold.

"We have a nice product, with affordable prices, in a planned neighborhood," said Key.

Add to that the fact that Sound Transit light rail will be completing a station there within a few years, also to be called Othello Station, and it's a pretty good deal, he said.

The 150 homes to be built at Othello Station, about half of which will be single-family residences and half multifamily townhouses, make up part of the third phase of the NewHolly community development, a 120-acre stretch in the Van Asselt neighborhood.

The $275 million Seattle Housing Authority redevelopment was begun in 1995 with the removal an old public-housing project consisting of 871 low-income apartments. Over time, they have been replaced with about 1,400 low-income and middle-income rentals and single-family homes.

In the case of the single-family homes, the housing authority has sold the land to Polygon and other developers. The homes are being sold at the low end of the market -- and some must be sold to low-income or first-time buyers, said housing authority spokeswoman Virginia Felton.

That is obviously one of the big draws of the Othello Station project.

According to Key, the houses are selling from $266,000 to $320,000. The lots range from 2,600 to 3,300 square feet.

The old project, called "Holly Park," was plagued by crime.

"It was low-income, high-crime," said Key. "Just a dead area."

NewHolly, designed to include such neighborhood-enhancing touches as parks, sidewalks, tree-lined streets and a library, boasts regular police patrols and its own security operation.

Felton concedes that during the first phase of the NewHolly redevelopment, "there was a lot of skepticism about whether we'd be successful."

But she believes the planned community, which should be almost finished within two years, has worked.

Kevin and Leticia Osterman apparently agree. Leticia was one of the first people in line to get a chance to buy the new homes -- grabbing her place at about noon Thursday. They and several other families, said Key, spent the next two nights camped out, waiting for their shot.

Othello Station officials, in fact, allowed the families to sleep in rooms upstairs from the sales office -- with pizza one night, teriyaki the next, and a security guard posted just in case, said Key.

Kevin Osterman, a California transplant who lives in Ballard, said he and local college student Leticia had looked as far north as Bothell for their new home.

But he said they asked themselves, "Do we want a long commute and a high price?"

He said he and his wife are thrilled with their new home, on a lot with a nice view of Mount Rainier.

Osterman said the couple spoke with police officials before purchasing their home. They told the couple that the neighborhood suffered less crime than it used to, though by no means could it now be called crime-free.

"There was a bit of apprehension for some homebuyers, to be honest," he said.

"But for a young couple with no kids, it seems like a good place to be."

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