Who lives at 2200 Westlake?

Warning. This blog and this post contains seriously politically incorrect generalizations. It is not my intention to cater to every group or classification of people out there or to build up people’s egos. This is my take on how I see it. If you disagree, I would love to hear your side of the story. The point here isn’t whether I’m right or wrong. The potential buyer will make that decision. Feel free to post your comments about this topic to make your case.

So, who lives here at 2200? I’ll give it to you simple. The rich older folks live in the Aria tower. The middle-aged DINKs live in Arte and Azur. (FYI, DINK stands for Dual Income No Kids).

If you read some of the housing bubble websites, they’ve assumed that only spoiled yuppies live in this complex. While that might be true of shallow Belltown, I have not seen any evidence of yuppies at 2200. The problem? Yuppies can’t afford to live here. They have their equity tied up in their Belltown condos so they weren’t able to maneuver to buy here. My definition of a yuppie is someone in their early to late 30’s, professional spender, and hangs out in Belltown in the evenings. Now, there are yuppies that seem to come to 2200 and hang out in Whole Foods or sit around looking important in Starbucks, but I don’t see any that actually live here. They seem to descend on the complex around dinner time and the weekends. Where do they come from – nobody knows.

In the Aria tower, the residents are older couples without kids who are in their 50’s or 60’s. They paid a premium to live in Aria because of the convenience of sharing the same elevator bank as the Pan Pacific Hotel and is much closer to the Whole Foods. The units at Aria are much larger and mostly 2BD units. There are only 4 1BD units in the entire tower which automatically selects out folks who can’t afford 2BD units at $600/square foot. The people who live in Aria are the ones who buy that $500 sweater at Nordstroms or Neiman Marcus. I suspect plenty of bad hips and Viagra. They paid extra because they could and they want to enjoy the final 20 years of their life going to the symphony and drinking wine.

In the Azur and Arte towers, the units are about 75% 1BD and 25% 2BD. This automatically selects owners who are working professionals in their late 30’s and 40’s. The cars in the parking garage of Azur and Arte are not as nice as the ones in Aria, hence the lower wealth bracket. I counted 4 Range Rovers in Aria, and only 1 in Arte/Azur which has more units between them. The people in Arte and Azur shop at Jcrew and buy the $100 sweater. I see much more athletic clothing and people who are concerned with their self-image. The picked Azur and Arte because it cost less but still gave them a presence in the 2200 complex. These are the people who for whatever reason decided not to have kids. They decided to put the money they saved on going childless into a condo that they probably will live in until the divorce.

One thing you notice is the lack of kids in all 3 towers. I’ve seen two kids since moving in here. If anyone has seen the movie “Children of Men”, it begs the question of what the world would be like without children. What is 2200 like without children? Quiet and subdued.

If 2200 is representative of what the future of South Lake Union is going to be like, the planners will need to figure out how to attract the late 20’s and 30’s crowd from Bellevue and Belltown. The whole point of the new SLU revitalization is that you will walk to work in the new office buildings going up and live in SLU. Problem with that is that most of the owners here in 2200 are independently wealthy, already retired, or will be retired within 10 years.