Post navigation

Prev: (01/22/15) | Next: (01/22/15)

New owner, higher rents bringing an end to the Summit Inn DIY house and artist collective 

The freewheeling, DIY days of Capitol Hill’s Summit Inn are coming to an end. The culprit? Higher rents, of course.

Longtime building owner Pete Sikov recently sold the Inn to real estate investor Brad Padden, who residents say is raising rents in an effort to transform units into conventional apartments. Residents at the 1722 Summit Ave building that spoke with CHS said many of the building’s artists and musicians are now moving out, or planning to in the coming weeks.

On December 31st, residents were notified that rents would increase by around $100 and continue to increase for the foreseeable future. “We understand that the living conditions at the Summit Inn are in need of a major makeover. We will begin that process immediately,” said the letter form the building’s new manager, David Sharkey.

Construction permits have been filed to renovate the building, but some residents are trying to work with the city to force the new owners to address more immediate issues first, like the plumbing and rodents. Sharkey did not respond to CHS’s requests for comment on this story.

Sikov, who owns 17th and Madison’s Arts Inn Northwest, had encouraged recent efforts to make the Summit Inn a more arts focused community. The building was in shambles, but rents stayed low and residents had free reign to work in the building. But with rents going up, residents told CHS there’s no reason to live under such conditions.

“It’s just not worth it,” said Rich Dillard, who managed the building under the previous ownership.

Perhaps most known in the neighborhood for being the organizing force behind the raucous Summit Block Party, the Inn is not going out with one last bash. The Slummit Block Party, LLC is being planned for Saturday.

When CHS spoke with Dillard in August, he knew this day would come for the Summit Inn, but maybe not so soon. The 1700 block of Summit is one of Capitol Hill’s last remaining pockets of lower income housing, where musicians and public housing residents live across the street from buildings housing high concentrations of sex offenders and others making the transition from time behind bars. With its proximity to the Capitol Hill food and drink core, Dillard said he knew it was only a matter of time before a developer took a shot at transforming the block.

The Summit Inn was originally built as single-room occupancy apartments, with shared bathrooms and common spaces. Today the interior feels like an art installation itself, a building in a perpetual state of destruction and repair.

The Summit Inn isn’t alone in its struggles with new building owners. The Seattle Times reported on a a recent study that showed investors spent $3.3 billion in 2014 buying apartments around the Puget Sound. The burst of apartment sales, especially in older buildings, has helped trigger continuing major rent increases across the city.

Subscribe and support CHS Contributors -- $1/$5/$10 per month

22 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Hillster
Hillster
9 years ago

I always liked this funny little section of Summit between Howell and Pine, people on their front stoops and on the street virtually 24/7 and notwithstanding all the transitional housing, truth be told a lot safer here than the leafy areas across Broadway without a living soul on the streets for hours on end. One point proven by this little experiment is that you can have a lot more income/mental health/criminal background diversity living side by side when you’ve got enough density to have people out and about at all hours. Hopefully at least this lesson won’t be lost even if we’re now finally losing this last little slice of hippydom on the Hill.

Dan
Dan
9 years ago

Today in super depressing Capitol Hill news, more artistic culture dies out in the name of greed…

zeebleoop
zeebleoop
9 years ago
Reply to  Dan

“We understand that the living conditions at the Summit Inn are in need of a major makeover. We will begin that process immediately…”

so what you are saying is that the property owner is greedy for asking for more money, by way of increased rents, to cover the costs of a major makeover; one that the residents have been asking for? i don’t get your logic.

Jane
Jane
9 years ago
Reply to  zeebleoop

Not sure which resident or residents you are referring to but we haven’t been asking for a major makeover. Clean drinking water, electrical outlets that aren’t a safety hazard, rodents crawling through the walls and many more issues are far more important than an esthetically pleasing building.

onam
onam
9 years ago
Reply to  Jane

The point isn’t that you are demanding building upkeep due to an increase in rent, the point is that the new building manager is asking for that money from these tenants. By adding 100 bucks to each persons rent in that building gives this douche bag a way to finance *minimal* conditional issues in the building. Way to take advantage of a group of young, poor, single kids trying to live free and create without having to spend their entire month’s paycheck on fucking rent.

zeebleoop
zeebleoop
9 years ago
Reply to  onam

@onam

not really sure i’m understanding your point.

from the posting, the residents all agree that there need to be upgrades. the building manager agrees and has committed to start on them right away. however, there will be an increase in rent.

you do realize that repairing things isn’t free, right? that plumbers and electricians and exterminators aren’t going to donate their services just because some kids made a certain life choice? once the repairs are made, the value of he property goes up. so an increase in what one pays is the trade off for not living in an unsafe rat trap.

i’d be on the side of these kids if the rent was going up and nothing was getting fixed. but from what was posted above, a $100/mo rent increase sounds like a fair trade-off.

Adam
Adam
9 years ago

Hopefully this is a start of that section of Summit getting cleaned up.

Eisen
Eisen
9 years ago
Reply to  Adam

Getting cleaned up is what is ruining the neighborhood. It used to be if filth and grime weren’t your thing you stayed off the hill.

tc
tc
9 years ago
Reply to  Eisen

So you expect the rest of us that live in this city and pay taxes here to just allow a whole neighborhood to turn to squalor just so some overgrown children can rebel against the KKKapitalist $y$tem?

Corinthian Resident
Corinthian Resident
9 years ago

That stretch of Summit isn’t all bad. The Corinthian is fairly okay-ish, especially considering management hasn’t gone totally nuts with rent increases. I sorta like living in one of the few ok buildings on the street, knowing that the proximity of the riffraff across the street is probably helping keep my rent low, at least in comparison to the rest of the hill.

I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before I get a little note on my door saying that rent has gone up several hundred dollars. Aside from that nail-biter, the worst things I’ve had to deal with are issues typical of “vintage” buildings. Funky plumbing. Old appliances. So on, and so forth.

Well, there was that one time I stepped straight into a gigantic log of (presumably) human butt-mud when stepping out the back door into the alley. Threw those shoes right into the dumpster, which was conveniently 10 feet away.

Eisen
Eisen
9 years ago

looks like one of the last areas of old Cap Hill is being gentrified. I was hoping developers would stay out of at least this section for a bit longer

zeebleoop
zeebleoop
9 years ago
Reply to  Eisen

because the electrical and water systems are being repaired (and some rats are being killed), that’s gentrification? lol. do you even know what you’re talking about?

mamal
mamal
9 years ago
Reply to  zeebleoop

Rat gentrification .lol

trackback

[…] week, CHS reported that the artist enclave Summit Inn had been sold to a developer with plans to transform the Inn “into conventional apartments” with a total overhaul and inevitably higher […]

Krista
9 years ago

So, I have a correction. The “Arts Inn Northwest” on 17th and Madison is actually called the “InArtsNW”, also known as “The In”.

Mark Taylior-Canfield Journalist(Huff Post, Daily Kos) & Muscian
Reply to  Krista

Yes, the In is still a place where DIY artists & musicians volunteer to perform and show their work. Check it out during next week’s Capitol Hill artwalk Feb. 12 and on Feb 14th. keep the faith!

Krista
9 years ago

Thank you for writing this article BTW. It’s great to have documentation on these Seattle Cultural Issues.

Mark Taylior-Canfield Journalist(Huff Post, Daly Kos) & Muscian

My only comment – We are losing the DIY art/music scene in Seattle. Save Our City! Contact Mayor Ed Murray & Seattle City Council members. Where are artists supposed to live in Seattle!?? On the streets?

The Josephine has also been shut down. This f***ing sucks! I loved these shows… Amazing memories, amazing performances and art.
http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2015/02/04/rip-underground-performance-space-the-josephine

Mark Taylor-Canfield Journalist(Huff Post, Daily Kos) & Muscian

OK, did it again! I need some rest but this issue is so important that I can’t sleep…

trackback

[…] part Capitol Hill artist collective Summit Inn last year, and followed up in January after rents increased $100 when Padden took over from longtime owner Pete Sikov. Many of the Inn’s current residents […]

dave s
dave s
8 years ago

The city adapted new laws that forced the owner to sell rather than deal with building issues. You can thank the city of Seattle for this. Artists in this building? l guess we need to define what a artist is. Bunch of pot-heads wanting to spend there money on drugs rather than rent.