15821 Leary Way NE
Redmond, WA
Developer: Roger Nix/ on the lam
Architect: unavailable/embarrassed
AMBER ALERT!!!
Condominium developer Roger Nix has gone missing.
Last known whereabouts: building new condominium complexes so cheap that units are falling apart only a few years after construction.
Last seen: dissolving his LLC and running away with the profits, leaving residents stranded with huge repair costs and no legal recourse.
Purported to be: in Mexico or the Caribbean with suitcases full of money.
So you might be asking, “Where was the oversight on this project?”
Well, it turns out the city inspected the building before it was completed, and clearly before they started growing Kombucha on the walls. We’d like to point out to all aspiring builders, waterproof everything is essential in the Northwest. For God’s sake, look out the window. It’s raining.
Clearly, the worst part of this whole situation is that good people got stuck with an irreparable money pit that ended up being literally poisonous to live in.
The rest of us get to look at this sponge-paint, rice-cake, faux-plywood, rectangle-of-a-low-slung, small-windowed shoe box. That brown wood above the doors isn’t repair in progress, but rather “accent” coloring. We at CSC vote that in five years they pop this thing onto a double wide, and move it to Aurora Avenue to join the other run down hotels.
Photo: Seattle Times
September 27th, 2010 at 8:07 pm
Oh my, oh my! That is a sad story. I wish that the inspecting office was somehow responsible for follow up since it sounds like they made some serious mistakes!
If it really were a hotel, at least it’d have a wrap around second floor balcony…easier for housekeeping to drag the vacuum from room to room.
October 24th, 2010 at 9:14 pm
Can mold be classified in the vegetable category? If so these people can cut down not only on their food costs but their shopping time as well. Honestly- haven’t you ever stopped to see the different hues of mold as the afternoon sun retreats into twilight? It’s just breath taking. Oh, sorry- that’s just the mold that does that.
November 26th, 2010 at 9:34 am
Looks like the exterior walls are made of particle board.
November 27th, 2010 at 2:16 am
Looks more like cardboard to me.
December 6th, 2010 at 1:09 am
I think you guys don’t understand the builders concept. Combining the technologies that created the Chia Pet with luxury real estate is simply brilliant. When that mold grows out a little more the local kids will have a blast shaving this building into educational animal shapes.
December 10th, 2010 at 1:42 am
I have now decided that this building is synonomous with “WhAt ThE FuCk?”
April 20th, 2011 at 12:25 pm
Avoiding flood-plains is ALSO a good idea in this area.
These things were wicking up even more from the ground than they were from the rain.
There were a lot of families who purchased condos and couldn’t afford to pay for two residences, so were forced to keep living in this crap, which, as soon as the mold invades, is uninhabitable.
I don’t recall exactly how the story ultimately worked out, but I think through the magic of LLC’s, the developer skated with his profits and no liability.
I believe he expressed his remorse once, may have even apologized.
December 11th, 2011 at 12:12 pm
what’s the status of this today? (Dec 2011)
was it fixed?
who ended up paying for it?
December 22nd, 2011 at 2:44 pm
I’m a realtor who has a client who wants to buy one of these. I’ll tell you what I told him: stay away from this place.