Intracorp apparently saw the changing market conditions sometime around the end of 2007 and, with the project well underway, began working with multifamily brokerage specialist Jeffrey Williams, a partner in the Pacific Northwest office of Chicago-based Moran & Co. "They wanted to take this out very quietly because they were concerned about market perception; they did not want to look like they were not committed to the market because they are," Williams tells GlobeSt.com. "So we took it out to a very limited audience with not a whole lot of detail and pretty much all groups signed confidentiality agreements."

Part of the deal with Sobrato was that Intracorp not scrimp on any of the finishes and complete the project as it would have been for sale. Intracorp's total development cost for the project was not immediately available."Nobody lost money and I believe some money was made," Williams says.

Brian Cox, a VP with Sobrato tells GlobeSt.com that while Sobrato didn't overpay for the asset it did pay a premium for a unique property. "This was an opportunity to buy a very high quality product with beautiful views that probably would never have been built as apartments," he says. "This was also an opportunity to invest in Seattle, where job creation has been very good and where we are looking very long term."Williams agrees. "You wouldn't spend $48 million to build a 114-unit apartment complex in that location," he says. "It's unique."The marketing materials associated with the sale estimate that the property can achieve rents of $2.50 per sf. If the development had been stabilized at that rate, Williams says a $50-million purchase price would have translated to a capitalization rate somewhere in the mid 4% range.