(Image: Viva La Quinta/Jesse L. Young)

While residents at one historic Capitol Hill apartment building are calling for their building to be saved from market forces that will likely bring costly upgrades and higher rents, tenants at another “saved” landmark building are going to get new neighbors.

Early filings with the city this summer show plans for a new twin apartment building taking shape to join the landmark-protected La Quinta apartments at 17th and Denny.

According to the early paperwork, developer DEP Homes is preparing a plan to demolish a set of old houses that have served a range of capacities from duplex and up over the years to make way for a new apartment building on the land behind the Frederick Anhalt-designed La Quinta and its clay tile roof, its dozen two-story apartments, and its large central Mediterranean Revival courtyard.

The development plans come following unsuccessful efforts from residents to purchase the 1927-built building in a bid to protect their homes and the landmark structure. Though the group was ultimately unable to purchase the property before it was sold by longtime family ownership, they were successful in pushing for La Quinta to gain historic landmark protections in collaboration with local development authority Historic Seattle.

DEP Homes, a small real estate investment firm that lists an address near Judkins Park in the Central District, purchased the property including the landmarked building and the nearby houses last August for $4.2 million. It is now setting about a redevelopment of the property surrounding the historic apartment building.

Additional details about the planned new apartment building addition project have not yet been made public. Early architectural work filed with the city comes from Capitol Hill firm S+H Works. DEP did not respond to CHS’s inquiries seeking more information about its plans for the project.

Meanwhile, CHS reported last week as residents of The Madkin gathered with advocates outside their homes at 1625 E Madison, the latest efforts from residents in an old — and historic — Capitol Hill apartment building to try to rally and protect their building as longtime family owners are selling the property.

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