Highwoods sells 100th RBC Plaza condo; Hue says it's now selling units

Highwoods Properties announced today it has sold its 100th condominium in RBC Plaza, its downtown Raleigh tower.

The real estate investment trust has sold nine condos since it announced its third quarter results at the end of October.

RBC Plaza has a total of 139 residential condos in addition to 292,000 square feet of office and retail space.

Highwoods partnered with Dominion Realty to build the condos atop RBC Plaza. Sales stalled when the economy and the housing market went south.

All but two were under contract by the middle of 2007. But when the building opened in 2008 more than one-third of the contracts had been delayed or canceled.

The sluggish market for downtown Raleigh condos has also snared the Hue, which was expected to begin offering a rent-to-own, or deferred ownership structure soon.

A deferred ownership structure would allow residents to put a portion of their rent towards a down payment and another portion into escrow to be applied to the purchase price.

Representatives of CityView, one of the developers behind the 208-unit condo building at the corner of Dawson and Hargett streets, have not responded to requests for an update on the project's status.

The condo building's Web site has a media release dated Jan. 4 that says units are available for purchase and buyers can move in in February.

The release also says Federal Housing Administration financing is available for Hue buyers.

The rent-to-own structure was expected to help Hue reach the pre-sale level required to qualify for Fannie Mae and the Federal Housing Administration loan programs.

Qualifying is key since most banks won't issue loans that won't be purchased by a government-backed entity.