Get in Touch with Me to Learn More
Get in Touch
Contact Details
ADDRESS 1400 112th Ave SE Ste 100 Bellevue WA 98004
Cristalla in Belltown, Seattle and Continental Place are the neighborhood's two established high-rises. Cristalla stands 23 stories at 2033 2nd Avenue and was completed in 2005 on the site of the old Crystal Pool. Continental Place rises 33 stories at 2125 1st Avenue and dates to 1981, which makes it one of the first residential towers in the neighborhood.
Buyers usually ask me about the glass towers on the eastern edge first. A week later, once they have walked the neighborhood, they ask about these two. Both sit inside Belltown proper rather than on its boundary, and both have been trading long enough to have a real resale record.
I live and work in Belltown at 2414 1st Ave, a few blocks from each. This is what I tell clients before they tour either building. Where each one sits, what it holds, what it costs to own, and which buyer it actually fits.
Belltown runs roughly from Denny Way in the north to Stewart and Virginia in the south, with Elliott Bay on the west and the 6th Avenue corridor on the east. Zip code 98121 covers it.
Cristalla is at 2nd Avenue and Lenora Street, in the southeastern part of the neighborhood, closer to the retail core and the Westlake light rail station. Continental Place is at 1st Avenue and Blanchard Street, three blocks west and a few blocks north of Pike Place Market, which puts it closer to the water and the Elliott Bay Trail.
Both addresses are in 98121. That is worth stating plainly, because the newest luxury towers marketed as Belltown sit over the line in the Denny Triangle. I cover that distinction in my piece on Escala and Insignia on Belltown's edge. Cristalla and Continental Place are not edge buildings. They are in the middle of the neighborhood, with everything that implies about street life at 10 on a Friday night.
For the wider layout of the housing stock, my guide to Belltown, Seattle condo buildings sorts the neighborhood by era and building type.
Cristalla has the better story, and the story is on the outside of the building.
The site at 2nd and Lenora held the Crystal Pool Natatorium, built in 1915 and designed by B. Marcus Priteca, the architect behind the Coliseum, the Paramount, the Orpheum, and the Pantages theaters. The pool was filled with salt water pumped up the hill from Puget Sound, and the building carried one of the most elaborate terra-cotta facades in the city. After the pool closed it served as a boxing venue and an ice rink, and in 1944 Bethel Christian Ministries bought it and floored over the pool to create a sanctuary.
The 2005 redevelopment kept portions of the original eastern and northern facades and added a glass dome that answers the terra-cotta dome that once stood at the entry. You can read the HistoryLink account of the Crystal Pool Natatorium for the full record.
I mention this because design history is one of the few durable differentiators in a condo market where most buildings were finished within a decade of each other. A buyer who cares about it will pay for it. A buyer who does not will not, and that shapes how a home here should be marketed.
Cristalla is 23 stories of steel and concrete. Listing sources report the unit count between 191 and 197, with 195 the figure most of them use. The association's own records are the number that governs anything you actually rely on.
Homes run from roughly 420 to 3,393 square feet, covering studios, one-bedrooms, two-bedrooms, and penthouses. That is an unusually wide range for one building. It means Cristalla Belltown Seattle condos have an entry price well below what the penthouse tier suggests, and it also means a comparable sale from a different plan type tells you very little.
Reported monthly dues run from roughly $700 to $1,600 depending on size. Dues here typically cover water, sewer, garbage, gas, building internet service, earthquake insurance, security, common-area maintenance, and the concierge program.
Parking, storage, and bike storage sit in the secure garage, and the building includes a car wash bay and an on-site car-share vehicle. The building is pet friendly and has a dog run with a washing station, which matters in a neighborhood where the nearest public dog park is Regrade Park at 2nd and Bell. Building marketing cites a Walk Score of 98.
Continental Place is the older building by 24 years, and it is the taller one.
Thirty-three stories at 2125 1st Avenue, completed in 1981, originally built as apartments and later converted to condominium ownership, with common areas updated around 2006. Listing records generally show 128 homes, though some sources report as few as 122. Homes range from about 512 to 3,300 square feet in one-, two-, and three-bedroom configurations.
It went up two decades before the condo boom that produced most of the surrounding inventory, which is why it stands taller than nearly everything around it on the water side. Floor-to-ceiling windows on the northwest exposures frame Elliott Bay, the Olympics, and the Space Needle.
Dues at Continental Place typically cover central hot water, earthquake insurance, garbage, water and sewer, common-area maintenance, and concierge service. Parking and storage are in a secure garage in the building.
The age is not a defect. It is a set of questions, and I go through those below.
Both buildings run a full amenity program, and they spend the money differently.
Cristalla leans toward hospitality and recreation. There is 24-hour concierge service, a fitness center with a sauna, steam room, and whirlpool spa, a 12-seat private theater, a community club room, a business center, a guest suite, and a rooftop terrace with gas grills and a fireplace.
Continental Place leans toward the things a 1981 tower was built with and a newer building often skips. A 24-hour doorman and concierge with secure entry, an indoor swimming pool with a spa, a fitness room, a club and game room, and a conference room. The standout is the fifth-floor garden terrace, a landscaped deck with a sculpture, a fountain, and Elliott Bay views.
Two things worth flagging. An indoor pool is genuinely rare in Belltown, and it is expensive to run, which shows up in the dues and in the reserve schedule. And private outdoor space is the scarcest commodity in this neighborhood, so a landscaped terrace does more for daily life here than another lounge would.
My advice on touring amenities is the same in both buildings. Go at the hour you would actually use them, not at 11 on a Saturday morning. A gym that is empty at noon and full at 6 is a different asset than the tour suggests.
If you are weighing these two against each other, send me the unit numbers you are watching. I will give you a straight read on the floor, the exposure, and the plan before you spend a Saturday touring.
Neighborhood medians are context here, not comps, because both buildings carry a wide internal price range.
Redfin's Belltown housing market data for the three months ending May 2026 put the median sale price at $550,000, up 9.4 percent year over year, with a median of 23 days on market. A Redfin Belltown condo search checked in August 2026 showed roughly 135 condos listed at a median list price of $554,000.
Citywide, the picture has been softer. Seattlecondosandlofts.com reported in February 2026 that Seattle's traditional-condo median was $445,000 in January 2026, down 12.9 percent year over year. Belltown ran above the citywide median and stayed positive across that stretch.
At the building level the numbers spread out fast. Four homes listed at Continental Place in late July 2026 ranged from $849,000 to $6,700,000, which tells you almost nothing about a typical unit and everything about how much floor and square footage matter in a tower with a penthouse tier.
The comps that count are inside the building, at a similar floor, plan, and orientation. Then the other established Belltown high-rises. Only then the neighborhood median. My Belltown, Seattle condo market report tracks current prices and inventory, and my guide to what a Belltown condo is worth walks through how value gets built here. For the longer arc, my five-year review of Belltown home values puts the last cycle in order.
Dues, parking, and storage belong in the same math as the purchase price, since they differ enough between these two buildings to change which home is the better buy at the same number. Financing questions on any high-rise condo belong with a mortgage advisor.
This is the section that decides most purchases in older towers, and it is the one buyers skim.
Continental Place is about 45 years old. Roofs, elevators, plumbing risers, and facade components all run on replacement cycles, and a building this age is at or approaching several of them at once. That is normal. What separates a well-run association from a risky one is whether the reserve study reflects it and whether the reserves are funded to match.
Cristalla, at roughly 20 years, is entering its own first round of major-system work. Younger does not mean exempt.
Read three documents in both buildings before you remove a contingency. The resale certificate, the current reserve study, and the last two years of association meeting minutes. Minutes are where a pending special assessment shows up months before it becomes an official number.
One market-wide factor applies to both. Earthquake and master insurance premiums have been repricing across Seattle condo associations, and that flows straight into monthly dues. Ask what the association's most recent insurance renewal looked like, not what the dues were three years ago.
My checklist for buying a condo in Belltown, Seattle covers the full pre-offer sequence.
Height is not the same thing as a view. What you are buying is a sightline, and a sightline is worth what protects it.
Continental Place has the stronger position on this. At 33 stories on 1st Avenue, its west and northwest exposures look over lower blocks toward Elliott Bay and the Olympics, and much of what sits between the building and the water is either street, park, or low-rise. East and south exposures look into the downtown core, where new development is most likely to build into the view.
Cristalla sits two blocks inland at 2nd and Lenora, so more of its sightlines run through the downtown build-out. Upper floors pick up water and city views over the lower blocks to the northwest. Lower floors are buying light and location rather than a protected outlook, and should be priced that way.
Before you pay a view premium in either building, ask what sits on the parcels between your window and the water, and what the zoning allows there. That question has cost Seattle condo buyers more money than any inspection item I can name.
On noise, both are inside the neighborhood rather than on its quiet edge. Continental Place sits on the 1st Avenue corridor, which carries restaurant and bar traffic on weekend nights, though it is at the southern end near Pike Place Market rather than in the middle of the busiest blocks. Cristalla sits on 2nd Avenue, which is a busier arterial by day and quieter after hours than 1st.
Tour twice, at two different hours, with the windows open. That is the only reliable test. My guide to moving to Belltown, Seattle covers the rest of the adjustment for people arriving from somewhere less dense.
After enough tours, the patterns hold.
Cristalla tends to suit buyers who want mid-2000s construction, a deep amenity program, and a building with a design story attached to it. The range from a 420-square-foot studio to a penthouse over 3,000 square feet means the building serves a first urban purchase and a top-of-market move alike. Dog owners do well here.
Continental Place tends to suit buyers who want the view and the scale of an early tower, and who are comfortable reading an older building's capital plan carefully rather than avoiding it. The fifth-floor terrace and the indoor pool are amenities newer buildings at this price rarely offer, and the northwest exposures are hard to replicate elsewhere in the neighborhood.
Neither building is for a buyer who wants exposed concrete, volume, and a loft plan. If that is the picture in your head, look at Mosler Lofts in Belltown, Seattle instead. My overview of Belltown, Seattle housing types lays out the full range.
Investors should treat rental policy as the first question rather than the last. Many Belltown associations cap the share of homes that can be rented and run a waitlist once the cap is full, and separate rules govern short-term rentals. Verify the current policy for the specific building in the association documents before finishes or views enter the conversation.
You can also browse current Belltown, Seattle condos for sale to see what is available in both buildings right now.
If you already own in either tower, your building is your competition. A recent sale a few floors away with the same orientation tells you more than any neighborhood median will.
At Cristalla, the wide plan range is the strategic problem. A studio and a penthouse in the same building do not inform each other, and pricing against a building average produces a listing that sits. The comp set has to match the plan type and the floor.
At Continental Place, the challenge is thinness. With roughly 128 homes and a low turnover rate, a seller can go months without a directly comparable sale. That puts more weight on preparation, photography, and how clearly the listing explains the view and the floor plan.
Document readiness matters in both, and more in the older building. Buyers here read the resale certificate, the reserve study, and the minutes closely, and they read them during the contingency period when a deal is most fragile. Assembling those before you list keeps a strong offer from stalling.
You can request a home valuation and we can go through the numbers together. My guide to selling a condo in Belltown, Seattle covers the full strategy, prep, and timing picture.
Cristalla is at 2033 2nd Avenue, at the corner of 2nd and Lenora, in zip code 98121. That places it in the southeastern part of Belltown, near the retail core and within walking distance of the Westlake light rail station. It was completed in 2005 on the site of the 1915 Crystal Pool Natatorium, and portions of the original facade were preserved in the redevelopment.
Cristalla is 23 stories, with listing sources reporting between 191 and 197 homes and most citing 195. Continental Place is 33 stories with about 128 homes, though some sources report as few as 122. Confirm the count in the association documents, since the exact figure affects how many comparable sales you will find when it is time to price a home.
At Cristalla, dues typically cover water, sewer, garbage, gas, building internet service, earthquake insurance, security, common-area maintenance, and concierge service, with reported monthly figures running from roughly $700 to $1,600. At Continental Place, dues typically cover central hot water, earthquake insurance, garbage, water and sewer, common-area maintenance, and concierge. Confirm the current figure in the resale certificate rather than a listing description.
Age by itself is not a reason to pass. Continental Place was completed in 1981 and had its common areas updated around 2006, and a building of that vintage is at or approaching replacement cycles for roofs, elevators, plumbing risers, and facade components. What matters is whether the reserve study reflects that schedule and whether reserves are funded to match. Read the reserve study and two years of meeting minutes before removing a contingency.
Cristalla is a pet-friendly building with a dog run and a washing station in the amenity program. Continental Place pet rules should be confirmed directly in the current association documents. Building pet policies often carry limits on number, size, or breed, and they change, so verify the current rules for the specific building before you write an offer.
Continental Place generally has the stronger view position. At 33 stories on 1st Avenue, its west and northwest exposures look over lower blocks toward Elliott Bay and the Olympic Mountains. Cristalla sits two blocks inland at 2nd and Lenora, so its upper floors capture water and city views while more of its sightlines run through downtown development. In both buildings, ask what the zoning allows on the parcels between the window and the water before paying a view premium.
If Cristalla or Continental Place is on your list, reach out through my contact page or call (206) 251-9002. Send me the units you are watching and I will tell you what I know about the floor, the exposure, and the association before you tour.
For the wider picture, start with my complete Belltown, Seattle neighborhood guide. Then work through my checklist for buying a condo in Belltown, Seattle before you tour.
Chris Bierrum, Broker, Real Broker, LLC. 2414 1st Ave Apt 612, Seattle, WA 98121. (206) 251-9002.
Get in Touch with Me to Learn More
ADDRESS 1400 112th Ave SE Ste 100 Bellevue WA 98004