We’re holding an open house this Sunday (May 5, 1–4 p.m.) for 1760 NW 56th St #414, a blue-chip condo in a prime Ballard location. Pun intended—from this condo, you can walk just two blocks and take the D-line bus straight to Amazon. Or if Eastside employment is more your thing, the Microsoft Connector runs right by this condo, too, as well as other Bellevue-bound buses. Seattle’s commutes are notorious. Not so much from this condo.
The location gets even better when you aren’t working. With a near-perfect Walkscore of 97, you can find just about everything just a few skips from your front door. Ballard’s beloved restaurants, bars, coffee shops, and music venues, of course—but also the places you don’t think about until you settle into daily life. You can walk a single block to an award-winning library. A movie theater, FedEx, pet care store, boutique, and used bookstore are all just a two-minute walk away. Maybe three minutes if your shoe keeps coming untied. And for groceries, within a 0.4-mile walk you can take your pick of Safeway, QFC, Walgreens, or the local Ballard Market.
Enough about everything around the condo. What’s it like inside? The building is the vik, which is one of the newest condominium buildings in all of Seattle (built in 2016), with all the state-of-the-art amenities you’d expect (and probably some you didn’t). A fitness center, parking garage, extra storage, and electric car charging, of course, but my favorite part: the landscaped rooftop deck complete with lounge area, barbecue grills, firepit, and a dog run (two pets are allowed with no breed or weight restrictions). Rooftop parties belong here. The vik also has a 24-hour concierge and, according to one resident, “a very pro-active facilities manager. He even comes by on weekends to take care of surprise issues like a stuck garage or whatever comes up. He has all the contacts and is quick to respond to maintenance issues. A really nice perk is that he delivers your packages right to your door, even the big heavy ones.”
For the more technical details, the vik is a contemporary mid-rise (which in Ballard means it has an unbeatable view) with 117 units. There’s no rental cap, and although you’re free to rent it out, you’d be in the minority if you do. Owner occupancy is just shy of 90%; almost everyone who can live here chooses to. The HOA is well managed with healthy reserves. The board took a conservative approach and increased dues a small amount the last two years to quickly amass enough reserves to prepare the HOA for the unforeseen—but despite these increases, the vik’s HOA dues ($307 for this unit) are still lower than most in Seattle, especially for a building this pristine and new.
My praise just keeps going inside the unit itself (it really is a great condo). It’s got 9-foot ceilings, upscale fixtures and fittings, hardwood floors, quartz countertops, and a designer kitchen and bathroom. The view is far and away better than those of other condos on the market right now (most others offer glorious vistas of a big building right across the street…). And the den can double a guest space, office, or nursery. The price of $515,000 lets you get into this building below its average listing price of $555,667.
You can see the full listing description here, and we’re holding an open house on Sunday, May 5, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Come on by!
PS: We’ll have snacks at the open house!
PPS: Check out our blog for more information about Seattle’s current condo market and the pros and cons of buying a condo compared to a house.
