‘The money is still here’: Gee says Ballard’s luxury car condos show Seattle’s wealth isn’t going anywhere

A new Ballard development will sell garage condos for luxury cars starting in the mid-$600,000s. KIRO host Gee Scott thinks the project shows that Seattle’s wealth isn’t leaving.

“I know that there are people that love to tell you that Seattle or this area is dying. It’s not,” Gee said on “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio. “The money is still here, and it’s not going anywhere.”

Terminal One Motor + Yacht Club broke ground Oct. 21 on a nine-acre site along Salmon Bay, next to the Ballard Locks. The project will include 72 private garage units for collectors’ cars. A later phase adds “dockominiums,” which are individually owned spaces to dock yachts.

Collectors get a home for luxury cars and superyachts

KIRO producer Andrew Lanier said the marketing material describes the development as the place “where hypercars meet superyachts.” The marina is designed for yachts up to 300 feet long.

A Sotheby’s broker working on the project said in a statement that wealthy collectors need somewhere better to keep their cars.

“As collectors acquire automobiles worth hundreds of thousands, or even millions of dollars, the question becomes where and how these assets should be housed, protected and enjoyed,” the statement read. “Increasingly, the answer is not another rented parking space.”

“Can’t have a rented parking space for that,” Lanier joked.

‘I thought millionaires were leaving’

Gee had trouble believing what he was hearing at first.

“What am I supposed to think about this?” he asked. “I thought millionaires were leaving.”

He kept coming back to the price.

“Car condos, anywhere from $600,000 up, just for a parking space and a little spot to just kind of chill for a minute,” Gee said.

For Gee, the project said a lot about how much money is still in Seattle.

“This tells you something about Seattle’s wealth. It’s not going to disappear,” he said.

Gee: Seattle is getting ‘a remodel’

Gee doesn’t think Seattle is in decline. Instead, he thinks the city is changing.

“Seattle is going through a remodel, a redistribution of businesses and how things are going to look,” Gee said.

He expects businesses and people to keep coming to the city, even if those businesses look different than they used to.

Gee also promised listeners that if he’s wrong, he’ll say so.

“If in a couple years I’m wrong, and there’s just this exodus of millionaires leaving, the facts are going to be there, and I’m going to come and say I was wrong,” he said.

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to Gee and Ursula on “The Gee and Ursula Show” weekday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm on KIRO Newsradio.