Garbage-strewn, leaning condos are deemed unfit

By Bob Young
Seattle Times staff reporter

	GREG GILBERT / THE SEATTLE TIMES Condo owner Bob Ferguson, left, talks with city inspector Matthew Moeller yesterday inside Ferguson's condo. Rains caused the condos to slide in 1997 and the owners had to move out. Homeless have camped inside Ferguson's and two other condos, trashing them.
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The leaning condos of Seattle's Lakeview Boulevard East moved a step closer to demolition yesterday.

A city inspector toured the three condos, which were evacuated after a Jan. 3, 1997, landslide, and said they looked unfit for residents and eligible for condemnation. That means the owners could get a demolition permit as early as Friday.

City inspector Matthew Moeller said he was disgusted by the inside of the condos, which have become hangouts for homeless youth and dumping grounds for garbage. "But that's not unexpected, given the conditions," Moeller said.

A stomach-churning mix of wet clothes, crumbled drywall, pornography, beer bottles and discarded food containers was piled knee-deep in the condos. Walls were pockmarked with holes. Windows smashed. And graffiti seemed to cover every flat surface.

Most of the scribbling expressed rage and despair. "I don't really miss God, but I sure miss Santa Claus," read one scrawling. "Slave to the needle," stated another. "I myself welcome a violent death as a climactic end to a beautifully dangerous existence," said yet another.

GREG GILBERT / THE SEATTLE TIMES Bob Ferguson, owner of one of the condos, crawls into one of three boarded-up buildings on Lakeview Boulevard East. Ferguson and other owners are still paying their mortgages and property taxes.

Moeller said squatters were probably reluctant to put their garbage outside because it would signal that someone was illegally living inside the condos. Instead, they appeared to sleep on it.

Bob Ferguson, co-owner of the condo at 1515 Lakeview Boulevard E., said he was no longer sickened by the damage.

"I hate to say it, but it's almost clinical now," he said. "It's like watching it on the Discovery Channel."

Ferguson and other owners are still paying their mortgages and property taxes, which increased this year as King County boosted the assessed value of the uninhabitable buildings. Ferguson and his partner bought their unit, with views of Lake Union, for $289,000 in 1991.

The condos, which can be seen from Interstate 5, have been boarded up since shortly after a 1997 landslide made them unsafe. But planks and nails didn't stop squatters from breaking in.

	GREG GILBERT / THE SEATTLE TIMES Bob Ferguson, owner of one of the condos, stands in front of the leaning condos of Seattle's Lakeview Boulevard East.

After seven years of legal battles, the owners finally settled their lawsuit against the city for a total of $125,000 last month.

Ferguson and the other owners hope to level the condos and sell the property, which contains 11,000 square feet of buildable space, to a developer. That would help them pay off their mortgages, he said. The owners have no offers yet but hope to get $750,000 for the land, he said.

Moeller said the condos appeared to meet the criteria for condemnation, because the cost of repairing them would exceed 50 percent of the cost of replacing them. The city's Department of Planning and Development will hold an administrative hearing on Moeller's findings on Thursday and might allow demolition to start the next morning.

Bob Young: 206-464-2174 or byoung@seattletimes.com

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