Hello everyone,

I was hoping to get a few opinions about renting a condo in Belltown for a week. It is about six blocks north from Pikes Place Market. I am wondering mainly about the location. I will be travelling with my husband (both in our late 20's) and looking to explore the city/music/restaurants/etc.

Thanks!
Angie

Should be fine, but location, location, location. What street intersection is it near?

Belltown has good streets and bad streets... Do you have an address?

I work in Belltown, and while it is convenient and has some great restaurants and bars, it also has a high density of social service agencies and homeless people on the streets. Also can be a bit noisy from traffic depending time of day and the specific building.

When I lived on Queen Anne Hill I walked through Belltown all the time on my way home from downtown. Parts of the neighborhood have a reputation for drug dealing, but it was never a problem for me. If you are from a little town and have never traveled anywhere, you may feel uncomfortable on city streets. But since your name is Angie and you have sophisticated interests in city life, music, and restaurants, I think you are going to have a wonderful time in your Belltown condo. Enjoy.

My message got posted before I had a chance to add that one problem with Belltown is that there is no supermarket handy. If you are interested in grocery shopping, walk to Larry's at 100 Mercer Street (in the direction of and past Key Arena). You'll find some nice reasonably priced restaurants in the area too. Have fun.

Happytrails, I'm not sure how long ago your experiences were(?) but Belltown has changed dramatically in recent years. For general appearances drug dealing is down but homelessness is up.

Angie, I do agree though, it depends on where you are from, what kind of situation you are used to living in, whether Belltown would be a great place or possibly an uncomfortable part of Seattle to stay in.

I don't mean to argue, but that's not quite true either... you'll find Ralph's Grocery & Deli at the corner of 4th and Lenora. Also Pike Place Market Grocery & Deli at the north end of the Market on the east side.

And, of course, all of the Pike Place Market if you want fresh items (fruit, vegetables, cheese, fish, meat, flowers, tea, coffee, etc.).

Thanks for the replies so far. I live in a suburb of Detroit, so it's not a large city, but I don't normally feel uncomfortable or unsafe in larger cities. Chicago, New Orleans, and Toronto are some of my favorite places to visit. I enjoy areas like Chicago's Lincoln Park if that provides some sort of reference for what I'm looking for.

Seattle has some really nice neighborhoods, but none that I believe are comparable to Lincoln Park or other historic neighborhoods in the great city of Chicago. We are a younger city—the feel of our neighborhoods is different.

Belltown is an up-and-coming neighborhood that would be a convenient location for a one-week visit to Seattle by a young couple with interests such as yours.

However, as mentioned above, there is considerable variety within Belltown. If you would tell us the address of the condo you are considering, we could give you a better idea of what to expect.

I'm no expert on Chicago, but I don't think they are similar.

Belltown is an emerging downtown neighborhood, continually reinventing itself. It might be called mixed, artistic, funky, edgy, eclectic...

Thanks again. I am working on getting an exact address, as it isn't listed on the rental site.

Angie, (Maybe you've understood this from our posts above but...) The reason we were asking for an address is it could help us help you know the atmosphere to expect outside your doorstep. There are literally million dollar new construction condo high-rises and there are homeless shelters. The viaduct (old highway) runs thru that area. But there're places with spectacular unobstructed views of the Sound.

I recently looked at buying a condo in that area in a nice enough building. Took my out-of-town sister down to see it, and sure enough the bicycle police had just uncamped a group of homeless folks sleeping under the viaduct and one guy was walking down the street carrying his mattress. Not that this was any danger to anyone, but my country sister's mouth was hanging open.

I really appreciate the candid replies. It appears that the orginal condo I was looking at isn't going to work out after all. Is anyone familiar with the Elektra building (condos) downtown? I am starting to think it might just be easier to stay at a hotel.

The Elektra is an older building. Many of the apartments had views--and then they built the Convention Center in front of it. It is convenient to the retail core and pretty close to I-5 (which may mean noise--I'm not sure). It's not the kind of place that will thrill you when you see it.

Nearby hotels are Summerfield Suites (which I believe includes breakfast in the room rate) and the Sheraton (which may have a special offer because the construction of a new tower is underway at the site).

Well, quite honestly, I would stay at a hotel.

The Elektra is up near the freeway and the convention center. Not a thrilling location or building IMO. If you want to see it go to a Seattle MLS listings, there's a unit for sale now. Let me check if it's still listed I'll get you the MLS number.

www.seattle-realestate.com
MLS #26031531

Thank you so much for your input. I think staying in a hotel will work out best for us for this trip. I've done a little research on that and now have to decide which type of hotel we'd like to stay in!

wise choice (and welcome to seattle!)