A 107-unit apartment building on Boren Avenue that once housed workers ahead of the 1962 Seattle World's Fair has sold for $14.35 million, a price that lands roughly 27 percent below its assessed value and marks the largest acquisition to date for the Bellevue-based buyer. The property, long known as Monticello Apartments, has been renamed Nordic Sloane under its new owner, Nordic Partners Investments.
King County public records show the deal closed on July 31 to buyer entity Nordic Sloane LLC, with financing arranged through Everett-based Coastal Community Bank, according to the Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce. The seller, Monticello Apartments II LLC, is an entity affiliated with Sumner-based Investco, which originally bought the building in 2007 for almost $11.5 million and held it for 19 years before selling for a $2.85 million nominal gross profit, per the same account. As reported by The Real Deal, the property traded roughly 55 percent below the average per-unit price recorded across Seattle multifamily deals this spring, which averaged $301,000 per unit.
The 415 Boren Avenue building carried a price per unit of $134,112 against an assessed value of $19.6 million, according to the same report. The off-market sale wasn't publicly listed before it closed; brokerage firm Kidder Mathews said its Simon | Anderson Multifamily Team represented the seller and brought Nordic Partners into the deal, which drew multiple competing offers despite never hitting the open market.
A Mid-Century Building With Small Footprints
Built in 1957, the property spans 42,342 net rentable square feet across its 107 units, averaging roughly 396 square feet per unit, according to MyNorthwest. That points to a floor plan mix weighted heavily toward studios and small one-bedrooms. Hoodline previously featured a 264-square-foot studio at the address renting for $1,220 a month back in 2019, and an earlier piece noted a similarly sized unit listed at $1,316.
Nordic Partners Investments plans to spend about $400,000 on property improvements in its first year of ownership, including replacing the roof membrane, renovating currently vacant units, and moving property management in-house, per MyNorthwest's report. The firm, which launched in 2021 and has now completed 14 acquisitions, says it owns 395 units across its portfolio. Its affiliate, Nordic Real Estate, is owned and operated by Nordic Partners' partners and oversees about 60 buildings comprising 2,000 units.
Following Up on the John Winthrop Deal
This isn't Nordic Partners' first First Hill-area purchase this year. The firm bought the 79-unit John Winthrop Apartments at 1020 Seneca Street for $11 million in March, and The Real Deal reports the company is close to acquiring another property. Jacob Wilson, cited in that report, said some investors might be wary of entering the greater Seattle multifamily sector right now, pointing to elevated interest rates, the city's high office vacancy rate, and the broader political climate as factors keeping capital on the sidelines.
Seattle's multifamily vacancy rate stood at 6.7 percent in the second quarter, up from 7 percent a year earlier and 7 percent in the first quarter, according to figures reported by Kidder Mathews. Those numbers sit against a much starker picture downtown: Cushman & Wakefield reported that Seattle's office market reached a record overall vacancy rate of 36.5 percent in the first quarter of 2026, driven by major tenant departures including Meta vacating 195,000 square feet and Amazon vacating 148,000 square feet. Kidder Mathews separately reported close-in Seattle office vacancy at 28.0 percent in early 2026, representing 16 consecutive quarters of rising vacancy since roughly 12 percent in late 2021.
Why First Hill Keeps Attracting Buyers
The gap between the struggling office core and steadier residential demand helps explain why an investor would target a mid-century, high-density asset like Nordic Sloane at such a discount. First Hill's multifamily market is anchored by major medical institutions — Harborview Medical Center, Swedish Medical Center, and Virginia Mason Medical Center — which Capdex notes creates a stable institutional employment base that insulates local rental demand from tech-sector swings.
Still, any value-add plan in Seattle runs into real regulatory limits. Washington's HB 1217 rent stabilization law, in effect since May 2025, caps statewide rent increases at 9.683 percent for 2026 and bars landlords from raising rent at all during a tenant's first 12 months, according to the state Attorney General's Office. Seattle Municipal Code adds another layer, requiring at least 180 days' written notice for any rent increase, with hikes of 10 percent or more triggering the city's Economic Displacement Relocation Assistance program — which can require landlords to pay up to three months of housing costs to qualifying tenants who relocate, per guidance from the City of Seattle. Those rules will shape how quickly Nordic Partners can recoup the roughly $400,000 it plans to invest in the building's roof and vacant units.
