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Every neighborhood has it’s ugly side. You know, the stuff that nobody wants to talk about. For some neighborhoods it could be the Home Owners Association. For others it might be that bad resident that parks cars on their front lawn and leaves their trash out in the street all week long or that the city is going to build a giant monorail smack dab through the middle of the development.

My husband recently sent me an email from one of the Issaquah Highlands residents and I immediately realized what the ugly side of Issaquah Highlands is.

TRASH!

That’s right, you heard me. TRASH! For some reason visitors to the Issaquah Highlands think the side of our roads and our green space is a proverbial dumping ground for their milk jugs, beer cans and Mc Donald’s lunch bags. Take a look at some of these pictures below and you will see what I mean.

I am sure their is a resident or two that are guilty of this kind of behavior, but by and large this is being done by non-residents. This kind of behavior infuriates me. I take pride in my community and I want visitors to see that pride when they come here. I don’t want them to see a landfill.

If this kind of behavior and defamation of our neighborhood bother you too, I encourage you to contact the Issaquah Highlands Council and sign up for the proposed Adopt-A-Block program. In addition, please report all litterbugs to the non-emergency number for the Issaquah Police Department; provide as much detail including license plate numbers if possible. It is a pretty steep fine for the infraction and might make someone think twice about doing it. And last but not least, pick up a few pieces if you see this stuff. Everyone pitching in a little goes a long way.

Please do your part to help  keep Issaquah Highlands clean and green.

 

As of January 15th, I am happy to announce that Issaquah Highlands has one more shop open for business. And on top of that, it is the FIRST of many to go into the new Starpoint buildings at Park and 25th.

Alice’s Beauty Salon occupies one of the wonderful live/work spaces on the ground floor of Starpoint North. Alice Abercrombie, the owner of the salon does everything from basic haircuts for men, women and children to fancy colors and perms all at very reasonable prices.

I am super excited to see the shops starting to open up in Starpoint. With the pet spa opening up in February and the pizza shop and espresso bar opening up at the end of this month, our neighborhood is really starting to fill out.

That’s all. No big fancy blog post. Too dark to take any good pictures of the white stuff. But it is coming down and sticking.

The retail area in the Issaquah Highlands is finally starting to come together. Recently, Port Blakely and Opus released renderings of what the planned development for The High Streets will look like. Port Blakely and Opus brought in five different architects to design the various buildings so that there could be as organic a feel as possible to the design but trying to maintain some level of consistency and quality in the process. I like that they are doing this a lot.

I really like the plans that they have put forward and can’t wait until it all starts to come to fruition. This certainly will add a great deal to the Issaquah Highlands community as well as make more people want to move here and call the Highlands home.

Below are some of the site plans and approved renderings.

At the Retail Task Force Meeting on Tuesday, Port Blakely and Opus announced the first two “OFFICIAL” tenants with signed leases that will be moving into The High Streets.

Issaquah Highlands can welcome AT&T Wireless and Ben and Jerry’s Scoopshop to our growing community.

Since AT&T reception is pretty bad in the Highlands, I am not all to excited about that retailer. Now Ben and Jerry’s on the other hand is something I can get excited about. Sure, it’s no Coldstone Creamery or Marbletop, but hey, ice cream is ice cream - unless it’s from Baskin-Robbins.

More updates on the way. Stay tuned.

Tuesday night was another Retail Task Force Update.  As usual Judd Kirk and crew did not have much new to report. They still couldn’t give us the names of the possible retailers that are coming to The High Streets. They did however, have beautiful sketches of what the area is going to look like. The plan is to break ground this Spring and is scheduled to have a Fall 2009 Grand Opening with a completely full tenant list.

They also had the person in charge of finding tenants present and while she wasn’t super transparent about Issaquah Highlands, she did point to the types of tenants she has secured for similar projects in the past. The list is quite interesting and varied. It includes the likes of pedestrian retailers such as Old Navy and Starbucks to boutique retailers such as Zoka Coffee Roaster & Tea Company and Blue C Sushi.

Some notable things from the meeting were:

• Drugstore has signed LOI.
• Oregon Company has signed lease on lot for hotel.
• Grocer is still nailing down site plans but has been confirmed. We should see a Press Release in 2-3 weeks.
• Electronics Shop has signed LOI.
• Book Store with a Coffee Shop has signed LOI.
• King County has approved the use of the Park and Ride for future Cinema parking but has not determined what the cost will be to Port Blakely for this privilege.
• 50% of the retail space is accounted for through signed LOI’s. 30% (15% of total) of that should have signed leases in the next 6 months.
• Space is being preserved for a gas station but won’t happen unless the people demand it. Port Blakely and Opus are thinking indoor/underground station like in downtown Seattle.
• Two retailers have signed leases and are now public information…but you are going to have to wait for that one to come in the next post.

 

I am still very excited about it because I think it is going to be a wonderful gathering place for those of us who live in Issaquah Highlands as well as a draw to those from outside our community.

Le Chic Pet Boutique and Spa will be opening its doors sometime in the next 45 days. Le Chic Pet is owned by residents Kandis Paden and husband Dan VanEppsis. The concept is simple - a “boutique” style neighborhood pet supply store featuring self-serve dog wash rooms offering only the highest quality accessories and food for Issaquah Highlands four legged friends.

You can find a nice little Q&A with them over at the Issaquah Highlands website.

It will be really nice to have a store like this in the neighborhood within walking distance. Issaquah Hihglands is making good progress on attracting really local and unique stores to the community which take pride in high quality. I think there is an especially neat opportunity for kids to learn even more about caring for a pet by having access to self-serve dog washing facilities. The only thing that worries me is that they price their products well enough above what people want to pay and they will make the trek down the hill to PetsMart. I want to see as many of the businesses as possible in the Highlands to have good success and longevity.

That said, I want to wish Le Chic Pet the best of luck.

Issaquah Highlands will soon be without one of it’s good old standbys where the owner knew your name and always greeted you with a warm and heartfelt smile. Sometime in December, Marcela, daughter of the late Wenceslao Anaya, sold Marcela’s to a new owner. The new owner, Julian Ramos, currently operates Las Margaritas in Redmond and is now in the process of expanding his empire.

I am truly sad to see Marcela leave our community. I feel for her and her family, having lost a beloved family member so soon after trying to open up a restaurant. I wish her and her family well and future success.

As for the introduction of Las Margaritas to our community (or whatever guise Julian wants to put it under), I am hesitant. I would have hoped for another establishment such as Pesos or Cactus that is a small chain with a location in Alki, Madison Park and Kirkland. My hope for whatever becomes of Marcela’s is that the new owner will make substantial changes to the layout so as to make it feel more inviting and less like a cafeteria. In my opinion this was what hurt Marcela’s. Adding some atmosphere and a bar would be a huge improvement.

In addition, this new development has caused quite a stir in the community (must be a resident to gain access). People are very sad to see Marcela go. She really made Marcela’s, what was otherwise a mediocre restaurant, into a place that you looked forward to going - with or without kids in tow. In addition, quite a few members of the community, myself included, are not looking forward to the transformation from a somewhat unique Mexican restaurant into another franchise of less than impressive Mexi-American food.

Some of the immediate changes you will notice are:

• No more happy hour
• Expanded menu of less than impressive dishes
• Service that is worse than Marcela’s ever was

The deal is not completely done yet as the sale isn’t set to close until the middle of February and a new lease needs to be approved by Port Blakely /Opus. So if you feel as strongly about this as others, I would encourage you to reach out to Judd Kirk and let him know how you feel. We are the only ones that can affect change.

It has been rumored for some time that a dance studio of some sort was coming to the Issaquah Highlands.

Today, this rumor was finally confirmed. MK Ballet, currently located in Bremerton, will be opening a studio in the Starpoint building.

In addition to owning a successful Ballet School, Michiko Schulbach is the current Artistic Director for the Pacific Regional Ballet.

I am intrigued about the idea of having a ballet studio in Issaquah, especially one connected with the current Artistic Director for the Pacific Regional Ballet. I am looking forward to finding out more about what types of programs are going to be offered at this location. My daughter loves to dance so I can’t wait to get her involved with a community dance studio. She already thinks she is a prima ballerina, so maybe this will help her get the skill to go along ;>)

Last month I posted an article about the appreciation that real estate in Issaquah Highlands has seen. The data I used included all single family homes (not condos) that sold during during two different time windows; January 2006 through November 2006 vs January 2007 through November 2007 and November 2006 vs November 2007. The post generated much debate about whether or not there has actually been any real gain in the typical home in the Highlands and some went as far to say that they would not be surprised if growth was flat if not negative.

I agreed that the numbers may have been skewed by the appreciation at the low and high end of the price ranges so in order to accurately analyze what is really happening to a typical house in Issaquah Highlands, we all agreed to a consistent definition of what the typical home looks like. I am going to use homes that meet the following criteria:

Home Type: Residential

Bedrooms: 3 to 4

Bathrooms: 2 to 2.5

Square Feet: 2000 to 2500

Rather than just look at the same time ranges as before, I am also going to expand the windows a bit. The new data will look at all of 2006 vs all of 2007 as well as Q4 - 2006 vs Q4 - 2007.

It turns out that the number of units for this refined data change quite a bit. This is primarily due to the square footage and bathroom constraints. Units analyzed has dropped from 381 for 2006 and 236 for 2007 to 59 for 2006 and 46 for 2007. The one piece of data that did not change too much was the sold price ranges these homes fall into. With the new constraints the home sold price ranges from $250,000 to $700,000. Without the constraints the homes ranged from $200,000 to $2,000,000 with 95%+ falling into the $250,000 to $700,000 range. So really what applying these constraints has done is 1) remove the high and low ends of the sold price ranges and 2) remove homes that were either much larger or much smaller (+/- 10%+) than the average home sold. Which brings us to the actual data.

Issaquah Highlands single family homes saw the median home price increase 16% between 2006 and 2007, from $534,900 to $617,975. However, the number of units sold are down to 46 in 2007 vs 59 in 2006. Days on market have increased as well indicating that the market has slowed down. (see graphs). 

Issaquah Highlands single family homes saw the median home price increase 21% in the Q4 - 2007 compared to Q4 - 2006, $509,990 to $615,000. The total number of units sold are still down and days on market have increased still supporting that the market has slowed in this area. (see graphs)

 

While market times are longer than we have seen in years past, the numbers show that home owners are still seeing appreciation year over year. What is getting home owners into trouble is the type of financing they have arranged. With some of the “creative” options that have been out there, it has not been difficult for home owners to find themselves upside down in a property. It is a very unfortunate circumstance for people to be in, but I don’t see that carrying over into causing real estate is a bad investment right now. We are fortunate to live in an area of the country that has a very diverse job base and a strong economy - not to mention that it is just plain beautiful. As buyers start the new year off and take a look into buying a home I say good for you. Just be sure to do it with your eyes wide open, look at all your options and make sure you understand the type of financing you are obtaining so that you don’t find yourself as one of the unfortunate souls that is upside down and backwards in their home.

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