Unico Properties LLC, a Seattle-based real estate firm, owns and operates seven million sf of property in the western U.S., mostly office buildings. Three years ago, however, Unico branched out a bit and converted a 1910-vintage office building at Fourth and University in downtown Seattle into 95 apartments. While the going rental rate in downtown was running $2.25-2.40/sf, Unico was able to obtain rentals of up to $3.40/sf. That experience was an eye-opener for Unico CEO Dale Sperling. "You could just see the wave of urban living coming to downtown," he says. With only a 3% vacancy rate, Seattle devotes about two-thirds of its apartment stock to singles, living alone or with roommates, many of them young people who came to the Queen City to work for iconic Seattle companies like Amazon, Microsoft, and Starbucks.
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