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Investors behind Broadway post office buy are ‘long-term holders’

CHS has learned more about the investors behind the $3 million purchase of the building home to the Broadway post office — and what the subsidiary of Bartell’s intends to do with it. Don’t get all worked up — the Henbart real estate wing of the Bartell family empire is a buy and hold kind of operation.

“We haven’t undertaken any development,” Henbart’s Mark Craig tells CHS of the investment wing’s habits. “We’re long-term holders.”


Last week, CHS reported on the $3 million sale of the Broadway property immediately across the street from the future Capitol Hill Station and on a block destined for a significant round of development and change.

Craig tells us to expect the post office to be part of the location into the immediate future as USPS struck a deal for a lease extension through 2015 just prior to the sale of the land. The lease was to expire at the end of this year before the extension was signed.

At least until light rail fires up across the street in 2016, things should be pretty much business as usual at 101 Broadway E.

“We don’t have any future plans for the property,” Craig said. 

“We invest in properties and focus on what we call core properties in urban areas. We’re believers in properties that are close to dense, urban centers.”

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calhoun
11 years ago

It’s really unfortunate that this new owner has no immediate plans to raze that ugly building and re-develop the site into some nicely-designed housing with local retail at the base. That site, being so close to the light rail station, cries out to become something that will contribute to urban density and use of public transit by the residents. If such a re-development were to start soon, it would be ready about the same time as the light rail station is opens, in 2016.

Yes, we need a local post office….but a new one could be easily integrated into a new building at its present location, or into the development above the light rail station across the street.

oliveoyl
11 years ago

I could not agree with Calhoun more … please redevelop this property.

aj
aj
11 years ago

Don’t worry, 3 years is about how long it will take to design, go through master use and get a permit, so I would guess that Bartell’s will anchor the new redevelopment of this site. It is also curious that the owner of the Hollywood Video White Elephant has reduced the lease asking price from $38 to $20 per sq ft but is only offering a one year lease. I would guess that everything South of US Bank including Dick’s will come down with both Dick’s and Bartell’s as the two major new tenants/owners of the new project.

Bim
Bim
11 years ago

I don’t understand the love for these “nicely designed housing with local retail at the base.” As far as I’m concerned they’re really killing the neighborhood. It was great having a Fred Meyer, QFC and Safeway w/i a block of each other. Now we’ve got what I consider ugly buildings full of expensive housing and pricey eateries. I never go into any of the retail; it’s all too expensive (you can’t get a meal for under $10). And now we only have one badly designed grocery store.

I don’t understand the hate for the Post Office building either. It’s not an ugly building. It’s a municipal building and those are always more practical in design. It’s supposed to be a functional post office, who gives a damn how it looks? I would rave that it’s a fantastic building but it isn’t supposed to be. It’s a great post office that I can walk to and get cheap postage, not like the other pricey options (Fed Ex, UPS).

dpt
dpt
11 years ago

Municipal building? It’s a building with a post office owned by a private company

Eliot
11 years ago

People who buy buildings like this and just let them rot are what is wrong with capitalism, we suffer with a dead spot in our neighborhood while they wait to make a retardedly easy profit.

JimS.
11 years ago

I Don’t think this is “bad news” at all. Broadway will undergo a lot of really big changes in the next 3 years. It’s smart for them to wait and see how things pan out before they go off half-cocked with some pie-in-the-sky plans that might not anticipate those changes well. I hardly think we’re going to run out of our supply of “6 stories with ground-floor retail” within the next 3 years. In case anyone hasn’t noticed, there’s a helluva lot of empty “ground floor retail” sitting around un-rented all over CapHill.

Cap Hill Guy
Cap Hill Guy
11 years ago

I hope the Bartell family shows a little more civic responsibility than the previous owners and invests a bit in post office so it won’t be such an eyesore. As they try to portray themselves as a local, caring company that has served the region for over 100 years, this will be a great opportunity to see whether they can live up to the reputation they attempt to build in their advertising.

Friend of Broadway
11 years ago

Great point!

I just checked the Bartell’s web site in which they describe themselves as Caring, Kind, Giving, and Neighborly. Let’s see if they live up to that and bring the Post office up from its current third world standard to something that is at least not a neighborhood eyesore and hopefully becomes a community asset.

ejs
ejs
11 years ago

It’s not an eye sore. It does not need to be torn down. Perhaps rehabed with a new facade and interior, but that’s about it. Just proves that we’re in the throw away society. Replace something every year. Pathetic thinking.