Introducing The Seattle Timber Pirates!

Speaker 1: [0:08] Hello, and welcome to the Awesome in Seattle podcast. Two. Yeah. My name is Christian Nossum. We have the lovely Miss … Speaker 2: Charlotte Reynolds. There you go. The also lovely Mr … Speaker 3: Jason Saldarriaga. That's one way to say it. And the beautiful … Speaker 4: This is Anthony Chimienti. Ooh. So smooth.

Speaker 4: [0:30] You have such a good voice for this.

Speaker 1: [0:32] Yeah, geez. You didn't really like that I called you beautiful, 'cause you were like, "No, I'm not going with that." And, "This is Anthony Chimienti."

Speaker 3: [0:38] Yeah, we're coming at you now with new and improved, like, mics. You- A whole setup … this is, we're gonna do an ASMR, uh, podcast- Podcast … Speaker: like next week probably. It's gonna be all about market data in Seattle. It's gonna be amazing. And we're gonna open cans of cucumbers.

Speaker 2: [0:54] I didn't know that- And if you don't- … cucumbers came in cans, but okay. Well, me either.

Speaker 3: [0:58] Jars. Touché. Touché. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, look on YouTube for ASMR cucumber.

Speaker 1: [1:05] Okay? No,

Speaker 2: [1:06] thank

Speaker 1: [1:07] you. I think everybody knows. All right. So on that note, Jason, why don't you tell us an awesome story about Seattle that has nothing to do with cucumbers?

Speaker 3: [1:13] Oh my gosh, do I have a story for y'all today. So I, um, this kind of is like a, a, a continuation of kind of what we were discussing a couple podcasts ago when we were discussing, um, Seattle history. Um, so did y'all know that, um, there are three areas in Lake Washington of sunken forests?

Speaker 1: [1:37] Like a whole forest is underwater?

Speaker 3: [1:40] Yeah, like a, a, a huge grove of trees hundreds of feet tall are like, the canopy of them are 20 to 30 feet below the surface. Whoa. And they're just sitting there, like intact with the roots still in the soil. Yeah, so- Wow … about 1,100 years ago, 900 AD, um, there was an earthquake in the Seattle Fault that goes straight through s- downtown Seattle pretty much, and it caused a couple landslides. And these landslides basically just pu- pulled down a, an entire three different sections of forest- Mm-hmm … and submerged them in Lake Washington, and they remain there today, um, kind of preserved because of the temperature, the low temperature and the low, um, uh, oxygen in the, in the water. Interesting. Because Lake Washington doesn't necessarily rotate water out of

Speaker 1: [2:29] its- Circulate a bunch. Yeah. So I would think they would like just disintegrate over time.

Speaker 3: [2:35] Yeah.

Speaker 1: [2:35] You wouldn't think that they would- Preserved … just stay there.

Speaker 3: [2:37] I mean, I'll be honest. I, I'm from Texas. You move up here, and any time a leaf falls, you just know in 1,000 years that's gonna be oil. Like it- … turns into peat.

Speaker 1: [2:45] Yeah.

Speaker 3: [2:46] Like it, everything here stays. It's crazy. Yeah. In Texas, like in a day that thing is withered and gone. You know? It's dust.

Speaker 1: [2:53] Yeah, it's

Speaker 4: [2:53] dust.

Speaker 3: [2:54] Yeah.

Speaker 4: [2:55] So are your hopes and dreams. Oh my goodness.

Speaker 3: [2:58] Interesting.

Speaker 2: [2:59] Hence why Jason is here.

Speaker 3: [3:00] Mm-hmm. That- Girl, I packed my car up and I came up here the second I could. I said, "Bye." I was actually in Florida at the time. That's even worse. Even worse.

Speaker 1: [3:08] You just love peat, that's why.

Speaker 3: [3:10] Oh my God, I was like, "I'm gonna make my own peat moss. I'm just gonna like grab leaves-" "… and stomp on them."

Speaker 1: [3:15] Peat farmer.

Speaker 3: [3:16] Peat farmer, yeah. Yeah, so, uh, that's interesting and all. And just so y'all know, these three areas, two of them are around Mercer Island. The other one's off of Kirkland. Hmm. Um, so be careful if you're scuba diving. Uh, they were- Or

Speaker 1: [3:29] don't be and go check them out

Speaker 3: [3:31] and tell us how they are- No, they can be dangerous … 'cause that's pretty crazy. You, you can get caught up in them. But, uh, they were an issue- That's why you don't dive

Speaker 2: [3:35] alone.

Speaker 3: [3:36] Yeah, exactly. True. Yep. They were an issue like 100 years ago, um, actually in, when they were building the shipping canal.

Speaker 1: [3:43] Hmm.

Speaker 3: [3:44] Um, the, uh, trucks were getting… Trucks. Barges and stuff were getting stuck in the, in the l- canopy, I guess. The four trees. Yeah. Yeah. It's crazy. And so they, they actually realized that they were there, and they used some of them. They salvaged some of them at that time for the shipping canal. Hmm. But they stopped, and they left the rest of them there. Now, that's interesting and all, but this is really where I think the story gets more interesting. So jump forward about 1,000 years- … to 1991, I think. Early 1990s. This guy, a genius, named John Tortorelli. Cl- claps for John. He was like, "You know what? I'm gonna salvage this wood." He w- he owned, uh, Western Wood Lumber- World famous. And, uh, he got a, a barge out and he pulled it over to the east, uh, west side of Mercer Island, and he started salvaging the trees. And the Department of Natural Resources kind of was on him a- already. They were like, "I don't think you have the right permits. What are you doing? What's going on?" But then he broke a sewer line-

Speaker 4: [4:48] Hmm … Speaker 3: while doing this, and that's when the Department of Nat- DNR was like, "What the hell? What is, what is happening?" Hmm. And they were, they s- slapped him on the wrist and, and, uh, um, he got sent to jail because he was found to be stealing these trees. It is called a timber pirate.

Speaker 1: [5:08] Which is the coolest name ever.

Speaker 4: [5:10] Yeah.

Speaker 1: [5:10] That should be, that should be our new hockey team's name.

Speaker 4: [5:13] It should, yeah.

Speaker 1: [5:14] The Timber Pirate- Timber Pirates … Pirates. Yeah. Timber Pirates. Yeah, the

Speaker 4: [5:16] Timber Pirates. Yeah.

Speaker 1: [5:17] That sounds awesome.

Speaker 3: [5:18] I like that.

Speaker 1: [5:19] I'm gonna propose that to NHL Seattle. You

Speaker 3: [5:21] should. I like the Seattle Cold. I will die- Seattle Freeze, you mean? The Seattle Freeze. The Freeze, yeah. Sorry, yeah. That's

Speaker 1: [5:26] a

Speaker 3: [5:26] good one. Seattle Freeze. That's the- It's so fitting. It's so good that I had it wrong. But it is a good one. It's

Speaker 2: [5:31] so

Speaker 4: [5:31] fitting.

Speaker 1: [5:32] Well, that's a crazy story. Is there more to that, or is that

Speaker 3: [5:34] it? Well, so he w- illegally seized $165,000 worth of trees.

Speaker 1: [5:39] Dang.

Speaker 3: [5:39] Um, and it actually went all the way up to the state, the Washington State Supreme Court, and in a precedent-setting ruling, they de- they determined that these trees, um, were the s- the property of the state. So- Weird … he got sentenced to three and a half years He's living and breathing still, I believe, so. So

Speaker 2: [6:00] how was he salvaging the trees?

Speaker 3: [6:02] He got a, a barge, and he, like, cut them off-

Speaker 1: [6:05] So you'd, like,

Speaker 3: [6:05] go underwater- From the water, underwater … with a

Speaker 1: [6:07] chainsaw of some

Speaker 3: [6:08] sort- Yep, correct … that's waterproof? Yeah, and the trees were amazing. So he actually sent 18 samples, like cores, to, uh, to scientists, and they dated them, uh, by the t- the tree rings and yeah. Wow.

Speaker 4: [6:19] Wow. Yeah. So- That's crazy … Speaker 3: there's pictures online. It's like a sunken forest. It's- That's crazy … there sitting. Interesting. So when are you gonna start, uh, Jason's Underwater Submerged Forest Tours?

Speaker 3: [6:31] Oh, I started that a long time ago. That ain't in, uh, Lake Washington.

Speaker 1: [6:38] I don't wanna know about that.

Speaker 3: [6:41] Well, some people do, because I'm still in business.

Speaker 1: [6:43] Exactly. You don't have any Groupon deals for that one.

Speaker 3: [6:47] Not yet.

Speaker 1: [6:48] Google it. All right. Um, Charlotte, I wanna hear more about Northgate. I know that you run the Awesome in Northgate Instagram account. I do. And it's been blowing up recently. Yeah. And you always have really cool interesting stories. Um, what's kinda the latest with the redevelopment? What's going on?

Speaker 2: [7:07] Yeah, so I mean, there's really a lot going on around the whole area, but I found this really cool document just made available to the public, so- … I mean, you can probably find it too. Um, but there's, like, all… It's, like, a 200-page document, it's crazy, about, like- Wow … all the development plans for it and everything. And, um, one thing that I found interesting that I just saw the other day was the green space that they're adding. So everybody knows right now that Northgate Mall is just, it's really just this kind of, like, ugly eyesore- Concrete forest, yeah … just off I-5. It's really not nice. It is

Speaker 3: [7:38] beautiful and thriving.

Speaker 2: [7:41] Okay, Jason. I'm not. We have different definitions of what that means, but it's okay. It's

Speaker 1: [7:45] basically a giant, uh, mall in the center with parking lots surrounding it. Yeah.

Speaker 3: [7:49] And just tons of construction, yeah.

Speaker 1: [7:51] Well, now, yeah.

Speaker 2: [7:52] Nice and, nice and gray- Yeah … which everybody loves.

Speaker 1: [7:54] Exactly.

Speaker 2: [7:55] Um, so yeah, I was reading about all the green space that they're proposing for it, and I kind of describe it as, like, um, University Village.

Speaker 1: [8:05] Hm.

Speaker 2: [8:05] Nice and open, but, like, way bigger. I think there was- Hm … like, 300,000 square feet of proposed, like, open outdoor space. Holy cow,

Speaker 1: [8:12] like a park-type

Speaker 2: [8:12] space. So, yeah, exactly. Hm. But it's kind of all spread out throughout the whole development. It's not really all just in one place- Mm-hmm … which is nice. Um-

Speaker 3: [8:19] It really does look like U Village, some of those-

Speaker 2: [8:22] Some of the

Speaker 3: [8:22] renderings

Speaker 2: [8:24] draw- renderings … yeah. The renderings, yeah. Yeah. Like, where they have the shops and, you know- Yeah … like, little cafes- Near the stadium area, yeah … and stuff out- outside, yeah Yeah. I think it's gonna be really beautiful. It's gonna be definitely a lot better than what they have there now. Mm-hmm. I will definitely spend more time there.

Speaker 1: [8:36] So remind me again, when is light rail supposed to be opening at Northgate, that station?

Speaker 2: [8:42] 2021 is their-

Speaker 1: [8:44] So we're only, like, a year and a half, two years away. Yeah.

Speaker 2: [8:46] We're getting pretty close. It's- That is

Speaker 1: [8:47] super close.

Speaker 2: [8:48] I mean, it's crazy 'cause I drive by there, I'm up there all the time, and just seeing the progress on a day-to-day basis- Yeah it's, like, super apparent that they're moving really quickly on it. So I definitely see that, you know, moving on, on track. So-

Speaker 3: [9:01] Yeah, and they have- It's so

Speaker 2: [9:01] exciting … Speaker 3: they're doing so much. They're, they're building a pedestrian bridge. Mm-hmm. They're building light rail. They're redoing… So there's gonna be, like, two hotels, right? Yeah, two hotels, like, over 300 guest rooms- Man,

Speaker 3: [9:12] oh

Speaker 2: [9:12] man … Speaker 3: between the two of them. One of them maybe an extended stay, I think- I would imagine that- … is on one of the renderings- … that it probably will be … but who knows? Yeah. Mm-hmm. Well, 'cause if you think about it, if they have, you know, the light rail will be open at this stage. It's 15 minutes to downtown. Yeah. So that'll just open it up- That's true … a lot for business travelers. That's insane how quick that is. Yeah. When's the last time you drove from Northgate to downtown in 15 minutes? Last night, 3:00 AM. Like a Su- yeah, Sunday morning- I was gonna say, like, 2:00 AM … at 2:00 AM. Like, can, but can you even do it then? That's the, that's the question. Can you? I think it's possible, but not typically. Not legally. Not typically, yeah. Not when you want it to be. Yeah, exactly. Like, when you're going to work is when you want it to be 15 minutes- Yeah … not when you're, like- Not 45 or an hour oddly

Speaker 3: [9:18] driving in the middle of the night. Mm-hmm.

Speaker 2: [9:22] Yeah. Like, where are you going, Jason, at 3:00

Speaker 3: [9:52] AM? Don't, we don't talk about these on our pod- … on this podcast. So, uh, not to do a segue here, but if anybody's following the light rail with the s- uh, Ballard and West Seattle branches- Mm-hmm … it is getting interesting. The city, uh, kind of said, "You know what? We're gonna do another entirely different proposal and do a tunnel for both."

Speaker 1: [10:14] Whoa.

Speaker 3: [10:15] Yeah, so l- it, we'll be talking about this in the future a lot.

Speaker 1: [10:19] Interesting.

Speaker 3: [10:19] There's a lot of change, so we'll see how this plays out. Yeah, ' Speaker: cause they, like, narrowed it down, and they had all this community voting- Three proposals, uh, three alternatives or whatever.

Speaker 1: [10:26] Yeah. And now they're throwing a wrench into it and, "Here's number four. But

Speaker 3: [10:30] it's-" And it's, like, $5 billion more than what ST3- Oh, geez. Yeah, but they're like, "This ha- it has to be this way." It looks like… But they're doing the… They, they asked, if I'm not mistaken, they asked for the environmental impact statement for, like, all of the- Wow … alternatives instead of just picking one or two. Mm. So, yeah.

Speaker 1: [10:47] Geez.

Speaker 3: [10:47] We'll see what happens.

Speaker 1: [10:48] That's a lot of money.

Speaker 3: [10:49] At least Northgate's getting ready to open up.

Speaker 1: [10:52] Speaking of Northgate, uh, on Wednesday What is the date on Wednesday? I don't know. The 8th. The 8th. May

Speaker 3: [10:58] 8th.

Speaker 1: [10:58] Yep.

May 8th at 6: [10:59] 00 PM in Northgate at the Watershed Pub. What do we got going on?

Speaker 2: [11:05] Beers and Home Buying. Woo-hoo. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 1: [11:07] We got our next Beers and Home Buying class. That's it. Wednesday, May 8th, 6:00 PM. If you are interested in coming, they're totally free. Free beer, free food, and- Free

Speaker 2: [11:18] education … Speaker: free education, exactly. Um, in this case, this is one of the few where you don't get what you pay for, you get a lot more. So yeah, it's, uh, this class, we've been giving it for years and years at this point, almost five years, probably six years now. And yeah, if you're interested at all in learning about the home buying process, you should definitely attend. And if you are interested in attending, you just have to go to beersandhomebuying.com. That's it.

Speaker 3: [11:44] Oh, yeah

Speaker 1: [11:46] market. Let's do a quick real estate, Seattle real estate market update. Um, Jason, Anthony, who wants to say something about that?

Speaker 4: [11:53] You can go for it. You can start.

Speaker 3: [11:55] Yeah, so I mean, it's kind of not boring, but it's not- … exciting like it has been. Because in the past, you know, every few months, like, "Oh my God, there's a change. There's a change." Right now- Yeah … if you just look at a graph, we're not talking about numbers at the moment, but if you just look at a graph, Anthony really called this out, it looks like a correction, where we hit a huge, um, you know, the historic high- Mm-hmm … last May in terms of median sales price. So the average house in Seattle was, um, $750,000. That made national news.

Speaker 1: [12:26] Yeah.

Speaker 3: [12:26] And then it went down $110,000

Speaker 1: [12:30] over last year. And that was January it dropped. Yep. Not in one month. It was a slow decline from whatever you said, May- Correct … last year until January this year.

Speaker 3: [12:39] Yep. And then it's come back up. So right now it's right in the middle, 700,000-

Speaker 1: [12:44] Yeah

Speaker 3: [12:45] is the median sales price,

Speaker 1: [12:46] so. So that's, that's crazy. But that's also pretty typical for the, uh, season, because real estate is so seasonal. And pricing and inventory also follow that same seasonal, kind of like a bell curve-

Speaker 3: [13:01] Mm-hmm … Speaker: um, from January to December. So that's right in line with that. Yep, very true. So it'll be interesting to see in the future, I say this I feel like every time, because I wanna know the trend, but you can't tell the trend until you're in the future.

Speaker 1: [13:14] Mm-hmm.

Speaker 3: [13:14] Um, so I look forward to going back to the future in the future- … and looking back and saying, "Oh my gosh, this was a correction," or, "It kept, uh, appreciating," or, "This is just a seasonal thing." But, uh-

Speaker 1: [13:27] Gotta call you Michael J. Fox from now on. Do it. Do it.

Speaker 4: [13:32] Um, yeah, and I wanted to add a bit, um, to what you were just talking about. So, uh, there was a article that just came out in the Seattle Times. I think it was just a few days ago, it, it was definitely this week. Um, and they were talking about how, uh, there was this sort of split in the market that was happening. Hmm. Um, and what they were talking about was, was basically they had, um, divided the market into three different sections. So it was houses that were more than, uh- houses that were more than $600,000, um, houses that were less than $385,000, and then the houses in between were the third section. Hmm.

Speaker 1: [14:16] So zero to 385, 385 to 600- Yep and 600 and, and above.

Speaker 4: [14:21] Yep.

Speaker 1: [14:22] Okay.

Speaker 4: [14:22] Um, and what it was showing is that those houses 600 and above actually had a slight decrease, um, year over year in what Jason was talking about in that, um, median, uh, median price. Hmm. And the houses that were in the bottom section of that, so 385, um, and below- Below … uh, they actually saw an 8% increase year over year. Dang. So, um, I thought that was kinda interesting. You- they were talking about areas that were maybe a little bit outside of, um, the Seattle metro area, um, which is where you're gonna find houses in that price range. Mm-hmm. Um, you know, more s- Snohomish County, um, Pierce County. Uh, but yeah, I thought that was interesting too just to see that, um, there was, there was kind of some dynamics within the market that were-

Speaker 1: [15:12] Yep showing differences And those are kinda always at play. Mm-hmm. And it's whether or not you can pick them out Uh, and really put numbers to it or not. Mm-hmm. And that's kinda, uh, that's where, I mean, whenever, if ever you are looking to buy or sell, you just gotta choose a real estate agent that knows your price range and your neighborhoods, because there are always little mini dynamics, much like Anthony just pointed out, within the market. And if there's an agent that is actually paying attention and doing transactions and helping people buy and sell in that area, just like what you're looking for, they're gonna know those things. Even if the, the stats aren't showing them necessarily, they're gonna know them.

Speaker 3: [15:50] Well, not to toot your own horn, Lord knows your horn don't need no more tooting, okay? Um-

Speaker 1: [15:55] Don't ask my wife.

Speaker 3: [15:56] Yeah. Oh my goodness. But, uh, you've been saying this for the last two years. It, you always use the analogy of a ripple. Mm-hmm. You know, you drop like a stone in a pond, and it ripples out in a circle, you know- Yep … uh, cont- from the center. Mm-hmm. And what we saw over the last few years was crazy appreciation in the heart of Seattle, in Capitol Hill, Belltown, South Lake Union- Yep um, Fremont, all these areas very central to the city. And then it's as if it got saturated. People, you know, it just got so ridiculous in a way. People are, it's like, "It's not worth this." Mm-hmm. So people are now looking more on the perimeter. Yep. So you're seeing now, like in s- Shoreline and West Seattle and Burien, even White Center, these areas with much bigger price increases- Yep compared to what we were seeing in the center. Um-

Speaker 1: [16:40] And another way to show that, too, it's like, uh, a volcano erupting. And the center was downtown Seattle, and that's where it was the hottest, and then the, the magma, the lava flew or went further away from the center, and that's kinda what's happening with prices. You know, they're still hot, but they're just going out further and further, and the, they're cooling in the middle as it, as it separates away from the top of the volcano.

Speaker 3: [17:06] Another analogy would be, um- 'Cause we

Speaker 1: [17:07] need three analogies.

Speaker 3: [17:08] Maybe- Like the, uh… And timely. We can continue on this path. Measles outbreaks. No, I'm kidding.

Speaker 1: [17:17] All right. Well, that's it. We actually… Let's see. Yeah, we gotta get outta here, um, because we're teaching another home buyer class. We're actually doing that tonight at Stoup in Ballard.

Speaker 3: [17:27] Oh, this is gonna be fun.

Speaker 1: [17:28] It is awesome. If you have never been to Stoup, uh, Brewing in Ballard, you are missing out. And if you've ever been looking for an event space in Ballard, they have a suite upstairs that- I mean, you can do meetings, kinda like what we're doing tonight, where they … I think we have seating for 30-plus people in there. We

Speaker 3: [17:46] better.

Speaker 1: [17:46] I know. We have, like, 40 sign-ups, so that's gonna be-

Speaker 3: [17:50] Oh my goodness.

Speaker 1: [17:50] People are still signing up this afternoon- I know … by the way. Um-

Speaker 3: [17:53] It's a good problem

Speaker 1: [17:54] to have. Yes, it is. But, uh, but yeah, if you're ever looking for a venue for something like that, um, or just a private party or something, they have a great upstairs, uh-

Speaker 2: [18:01] Or anything.

Speaker 1: [18:02] Or anything. Just the

Speaker 2: [18:02] perfect summer venue.

Speaker 1: [18:03] I know. They have an awesome beer garden. They have a huge outdoor area. Yeah. Exactly.

Speaker 3: [18:06] And can I just say, like, they took us on a tour and stuff- Mm-hmm … and they love their job. Uh, yeah. They love beer so much. Mm-hmm. I, I'll be honest, I'm a whiskey guy, okay? Beer doesn't toot my horn too much. But y- I mean, the employees kind of made me, like-

Speaker 1: [18:20] Want

Speaker 3: [18:21] to second-guess myself. I know. Like, I wanna learn- Yeah … about this. Yeah, they're so into it. It's fascinating.

Speaker 1: [18:25] Yeah.

Speaker 4: [18:26] There's a lot of beer that they age in bourbon barrels and stuff.

Speaker 3: [18:29] I know. Yeah, I know. And I'm like, if they- You know, th- they're like, "This one was at 90 degrees, and this one was at 70 degrees." And you're like, "This one's at 35 degrees."

Speaker 1: [18:37] Mind blown. Yeah. Yeah, that was cool. So that's it. That's this episode of Awesome in Seattle. Um, we will see you guys next time. Thanks. Bye. Bye.