Tag Archives: real estate

Capitol Hill LGBTQ landmark the Gaslight Inn hits market for $3.5M

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(Image: NWMLS)

A Capitol Hill landmark and a temporary home away from home for hundreds of travelers every year who visit the neighborhood, The Gaslight Inn is on the market.

A listing for the 15th Ave property went up this week. The price? $3.5 million — a small price for a 108-year-old piece of Capitol Hill history, no?

Here’s the marketing pitch:

The GASLIGHT INN(Circa 1910), a beautifully maintained Historic Landmark 8 suite (plus lower level owner’s floor w/3 bedrooms + office) in-city Boutique is ready for its next proprietor. Interior public spaces are graced by magnificent Oak millwork, stained & beveled glass windows, built-in cabinetry, & 3 gas fireplaces. The exterior is centered around the pool; a wisteria draped arbor and Koi pond. Strong book of clientele provides a stable base with the opportunity to grow.

In 2015, the house was approved for landmarks protections. Gaslight owner Stephen Bennett, who nominated the building, told CHS at the time he was elated at the board’s decision and recognition of the building’s important place in Capitol Hill’s LGBTQ history. Back then, Bennett said he’s looking forward to living out his retirement with the house and his bed and breakfast business. “I don’t have any family or children, so I would like to leave it to a civic organization,” he said. “I want it kept in the community.” We’ll follow up to learn more about the decision to list the property. Continue reading →

‘The Pike Investment and Development Opportunity’ — Eagle and Victrola block of E Pike hits market for $9.9M

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(Images: Paragon Real Estate)

In spring of 2012, CHS broke the news on a $9.2 million deal for Madison Development Group to acquire what we called at the time the Bauhaus block, the collection of property home to cafes, shops, and old school Capitol Hill apartments along E Pine at Melrose where the preservation incentive-boosted Excelsior Apartments stands today.

The news set off a new wave of “Capitol Hill is dead” that hasn’t really subsided. Another new ripple — this time on Pike — should add to the call.

A new listing from Paragon Real Estate investors shows that the 9,870 square feet of land currently home to Victrola’s E Pike cafe, corner bodega transformed into sushi restaurant Noren, and the dark recesses of nearly 40 years of Capitol Hill queer history and nightlife at the Seattle Eagle hit the market Friday for $9.9 million and is being touted as an “A+ trophy location” and “investment and development opportunity.”

“This offering presents the rare opportunity to develop one of the last remaining corner lots within 3 blocks of Downtown Seattle. Site is suitable for approximately 70-100 units plus commercial space,” the sales pitch reads. Continue reading →

In Pike Motorworks, a look at the big things Pike/Pine’s preservation incentives have created — including a $128.3M price tag

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There just aren’t many others like it. Another of the Pike/Pine preservation incentive boosted development projects has changed hands for a mostly unheard of sum. Pike Motorworks — built on the bones of the old E Pike BMW dealership and garages and now one of the largest apartment buildings on Capitol Hill — has sold for $128.3 million.

In the transaction, developer Arizona-based Wolff Co. has cut its ties with the neighborhood. In 2015, it cashed out of another preservation-incentive boosted project at 11th and Pine as it sold off the Sunset Electric development for $41.6 million to nationwide player ASB Real Estate Investments and its $5.7 billion portfolio spread across the U.S.

A similar new owner now moves in at Pike Motorworks as Boston-based TA Realty adds the property to its $28.2 billion in assets. Continue reading →

Black church puts $4.5M plan to exit 23rd and Union into motion

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The exodus of a Black church from its Central District home is moving forward. The Mount Calvary Christian Center has put its third of an acre property home to its house of worship at 23rd and Union on the market for $4.5 million.

“Rare opportunity for land in the Central District commercial corridor. Zoned NC2P-75, this site allows for mixed use opportunities not easily found in this high demand neighborhood with vast amounts of pedestrian access,” the description from the Bascomb Real Estate Group listing reads. “Subject consists of two parcels and provides an opportunity for a full range of expansive projects with the value in the land; bring your investors, architects & builders, and take advantage of having a presence in the heart of the city. Buyer to verify land use requirements.” Continue reading →

What’s next for Melrose Market under new owners? Tenants say maybe a breath of fresh air

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A Melrose Market view (Image: Sitka and Spruce)

In Seattle, everything’s for sale.

With every new announcement of a longtime business or building selling or making way for apartment buildings, the sense heightens that nothing is sacred.

So it was no wonder that after CHS reported that iconic Capitol Hill property Melrose Market sold to Regency Centers, a Florida-based real estate investment trust, for $15.5 million, many feared the worst for the preservation and locavore focused retail development home to Sitka and Spruce and Terra Plata.

“I got so many texts, it wasn’t funny,” says Terra Plata chef/owner Tamara Murphy, who says she’s had to calm down many people. Murphy’s not stressed, she says. “They’re not going to turn into a shopping center, at least not in ten years,” Murphy noted that the tenants in the building are safe until their leases run out. Many of the building’s tenants have long-term leases with renewal provisions. “They can’t turn around and say we’re out.”

No, Melrose Market won’t be razed to make way for a new condo building, said Craig Ramey, Regency’s managing director for the Pacific Northwest, Northern California and Colorado. “That’s not anywhere in anyone’s plans. [Regency’s] core business is retail.”
Continue reading →

‘Rare central Seattle find’ — With $2.8M listing to sell some of its land, church neighboring Uncle Ike’s begins longterm plan for new home

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Mount Calvary is selling land across the street on 23rd Ave for $2.8 million that will be the start of its plans to find a new home away from 23rd and Union

A $2.8 million real estate listing is a harbinger of things to come at 23rd and Union. The Mount Calvary Christian Center, which unsuccessfully battled the neighboring Uncle Ike’s pot shop in court, is beginning the process of finding a new home closer to the areas where most of its congregation now lives.

“We’re still very much a part of the community,” Nicole Bascomb of Bascomb Real Estate Group and a member of Mount Calvary tells CHS, “and we’re going to be there for a while.”

But change has begun. Bascomb, daughter of longtime Central District real estate agent Paul Bascomb, has listed her church’s Joshua Generation Teen Center property on the west side of 23rd Ave across from Mount Calvary for $2,824,250. Continue reading →

‘The Intimate Values of Inside Space’ — Of course an art show mixed with a townhome open house is happening on Capitol Hill

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At first glance, “The Intimate Values of Inside Space” sounds like your quintessential Capitol Hill Art Walk Valentine’s Day show.

The one-night exhibition, opening this Thursday during the monthly art walk at the new construction at 1532 15th Ave E, checks many of the typical boxes. It is curated by two local artists, Gabriel Molinaro and Alexander Keyes. And it groups together a group of great local artists, such as Jennifer Zwick, Philippe Hyojung Kim, Natasha Marin and local bands like Cumulus and Mahal. It also name-checks a French philosopher (Gaston Bachelard) along with a fancy-sounding concept (topoanalysis, in this case).

The Intimate Values of Inside Space

What’s peculiar, however, is its setting: six new construction townhouses. Hosted by Keyes, artist-turned-real-estate-agent, and real estate developers and investor company Build with Style, ‘The Intimate Values of Inside Space’ is also a real estate open house. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill’s Melrose Market sold to shopping center developer

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(Image: Melrose Market)

It’s no Neighbours but an iconic Capitol Hill property has been sold. Melrose Market, the preservation and locavore focused retail development home to Sitka and Spruce and Terra Plata, is now owned by the same real estate investment trust that owns the Broadway Market shopping center.

Public terms of the deal were not yet available from the county but the Puget Sound Business Journal is reporting a $15.5 million price tag. Continue reading →

Big ticket items in *possibly* softer Capitol Hill real estate market: Rocker’s mansion, playwright’s E Aloha home

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(Image: Sotheby’s International Realty Affiliates LLC)

With the neighborhood’s Millionaire’s Row and Harvard-Belmont Landmark District, it’s not unusual to see spectacular Capitol Hill real estate listings. It’s no Neighbours, but a 1912-built Interlaken Dr. E home is worthy of note.

For one, it’s owned by a trust associated with Seattle rocker Ann Wilson. For two, its $4.7 million price tag might provide further evidence of softening home prices in Seattle. Continue reading →

Those actually might be ‘condos’ after all: Conversions part of Capitol Hill condominium wave

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The Atrium at 11th and Aloha wasn’t not developed as condos — but it wasn’t exactly planned that way, either (Images: CHS)

More condominiums than you think are coming to Capitol Hill. And it turns out one key element widely reported as a throttle on condo development may not be the safeguard against building conversion that it was thought to be.

The Neighborhood Collection — a marketing campaign for a set of three new Seattle buildings including two on Capitol Hill originally developed and designed as rental housing — says its new buildings provide “a highly engaging lifestyle” where “residents will enjoy an array of amenities for gathering, unwinding and turnkey living.” The projects are currently lining up prospective buyers for “the studio, urban one bedroom and one bedroom flats and lofts” offered “from the $400,000s to more than $800,000.”

But that wasn’t the original plan. Continue reading →