A development with nothing but rental houses? A big one is underway in Gig Harbor
The latest housing development to come online in Gig Harbor seems perfectly timed for the work-from-home pandemic era and the shortage of available single-family homes either for sale or rent in the area.
Skansie Pointe, a Rush Companies’ project formerly known as Courtyards at Skansie, is a 174-home site at Hunt Street and 46th/Skansie Avenue.
The twist: All the houses are rentals.
The project, envisioned as an affordable housing alternative, was delayed for years in a legal battle between the City of Gig Harbor and developers over the density of the development and how much would be set aside as open space.
It has emerged on the other side managed by property management firm Edison47, a spinoff division of Rush, with some of the houses now built, construction ongoing and further development on the way.
“The biggest problem that we’re having is that they can’t build them fast enough,” said Lindy Harvey, senior vice president at Edison47, which oversees other properties in the area, including Rush-developed Madison25 and Proctor Station in Tacoma.
Harvey recently spoke with The News Tribune about the new homes and the development’s progress.
“The first move-in was the end of December, beginning of January,” she said.
The homes range from 1,450 square feet to 1,700 square feet, maximum 3-bedroom, with rents ranging from $2,550 to $2,985.
If that sounds pricey, consider that the median closed sale price for homes/condos in Gig Harbor was $773,122 in February, up more than 31 percent from the same period last year, according to the most recent report from Northwest Multiple Listing Service.
That compares with Pierce County’s overall median closed sale price (residential and condos) of $455,000, up more than 18 percent from 2020.
Overall, home inventories have remained extremely tight through the winter, leaving many would-be homeowners in a holding pattern.
“I’m surprised they’re doing this for rental and not for sale,” said Jen Russell, a broker associate with the John L. Scott Tacoma-University Place office, when told about the project.
Russell’s buyers have faced making upwards of eight different offers on homes, and there are plenty of war stories among agents of sales locally going $30,000-$50,000 over list price.
“It’s even still hard if you’re in the $600,000 price point, which is a high price point, you know, for Pierce County, and then for the first-time homebuyer price point, which is ... I would say to be around $300,000. And when you see the houses that you can buy at that price, you’re like, ‘Oh, wow,” said Russell.
She added: “But there’s low inventory on that, and the competition in that price point is cutthroat.”
Despite that hot market, Skansie Pointe homes are not for sale.
“In the next foreseeable several years, it’s always going to be rental,” said Harvey. “And the reason being is the pricing. Mainly in Seattle, Western Washington is just pricing people completely out of homes, especially if they’re a young family starting out.
“And then we’ve got a group that their jobs are stable, but they haven’t decided if Seattle’s going to be their home or Washington state,” she added.
“We’re introducing it to our apartment renters so that they know they can escalate from this townhouse or this apartment into a home. And that’s been really popular,” said Harvey.
New concept
The development is designed to appeal to those who might be between locations, waiting to find a home to buy, relocated because of new work-from-home options or trying out living in Gig Harbor. For others, it allows them to live more freely without the constraints of apartment life and noise concerns.
“There are homes that have office areas and landings that can be used for play areas,” Harvey said.
Along with multiple floor plans, they offer seven different color schemes to choose from.
“The best way to describe (the layouts) is there is upstairs living in some of our floor plans, which is kind of the result of two things: COVID and people that want to have their parents or their mother live with them,” Harvey said.
“So on the upstairs living, there’s two bedrooms, the kitchen/living room area is all upstairs on the entry level floor. You have a full master bedroom, office, bathroom and a closet. So that suffices for people that are going to work from home indefinitely, but they really don’t want to be at a desk in the living room so they get their completely separate space with a patio.
“Then there are the homes that everything is on the main floor, with a bedrooms upstairs. Some of our floor plans have a study area. Also full kitchen, and living room fireplaces in every house. Those would probably suffice for people that really want the kids upstairs and off to bed.”
Harvey said the concept is long overdue.
“I’ve been in property management for about 35 years, and I’ve seen this coming for a long time. It’s a lot to do with people who can’t afford or are not ready (to buy a home),” she said. “We also have several people living with us right now who are having houses built, and others not sure where they want to have a house built.”
She said Rush was “uniquely positioned for this type of project because they started out as a single-family custom builder ... So we’ve been getting custom features in homes for rent, which has been really popular.”
Parks and other amenities
The homes are maintenance-free for renters, including landscaping.
“We have full landscaping services. We very intentionally did the turf versus the grass. So it’s very limited on grassy areas,” Harvey said.
She added: “But we have large, grassy parks where the kids can go.”
The neighborhood is set to include a dog park for large and small dogs, a general park and by next year, pending design approval, a clubhouse.
“Once that clubhouse in the park goes in, there will be movies in the park, gatherings, barbecues up in the clubhouse. There’s going to be events, wine tasting, dances. We’re just waiting, you know, obviously for distancing, organized sports. There’ll be an ACES program, which is for kids, rewarding them for their work at school and having school supplies on hand,” Harvey said.
Also, “We’re going to have Yappy Hour, which is wine with your dog out in the park.”
Harvey listed the other amenities: “We have a valet trash system. So the trash is picked up and recycling is picked up at the front door five days a week.”
“They’re all smart homes. So you can turn on lights, heat, see who’s at your front door, open the garage door — all from your mobile device.”
The Smart home systems can run through Google Home or Amazon Echo platforms.
Home security features audible alarm and intrusion sensors.
The front doors are equipped with Smart Deadbolts allowing for keyless entry, temporary access codes and entry history. Notifications alert the user to entry attempts.
The homes have been equipped with Vivint’s advanced Video Doorbell.
All of the features and devices are accessible from the Resident App, according to Jered Lerum, director of Business Development for Edison47.
“The Skansie Pointe app allows for online work order submission, updates, rent payments and guest access authorization right from one convenient location,” Lerum said via email.
The development has Flock Safety cameras installed to monitor traffic coming in and out of the neighborhood.
“There’s a tremendous amount of comfort in that for residents that are really nervous about living on their own,” Harvey noted.
So far, 19 homes in Skansie Point are occupied, according to Harvey, with 40 leased.
“They are going in over a span of about almost two years,” Harvey noted. “So we expect to see the last of them probably come mid-2022.
“So as soon as they’re built, people are ready to move in.”
For more information, go to skansiepointe.com
This story was originally published March 29, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
