Tag Archives: real estate

Capitol Hill’s Coastal Kitchen boarded up as real estate deal apparently off the table

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Thanks to a reader for the picture

An important deal for the stability of the 15th Ave E business core has apparently fallen through.

Large “for sale” signage has been put up on top of the plywood panels covering the shuttered Coastal Kitchen following last month’s announcement that the restaurant and its building had been sold.

CHS reported in early February on the announcement from the Sound Restaurant Family company that includes the Mioposto pizza chain as well as a roster of South Sound venues including The Poodle Dog in Fife that it had a deal to sell the Capitol Hill Coastal property to new ownership bringing a new concept to the building that has housed the restaurant for more than 30 years. Continue reading →

Another cool old Community Roots Housing apartment building hits market but affordable developer says Capitol Hill sales are not a trend

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(Image: Community Roots Housing)

Affordable housing developer Community Roots Housing has put another of its classic Capitol Hill apartment buildings on the market but the organization says not to expect a continued selloff of its smaller-scale holdings around the central city.

“We’re not in the business of selling buildings,” a representative said about the planned sale of the Park Hill building, the 1907-era, three-story masonry apartment building at 13th and Madison.

The organization announced plans to put the 30-unit building on the market last month and began the process of working with residents to find new homes. The spokesperson said people living in affordable units can be placed elsewhere int the Community Roots “portfolio” and that the developer has gone “well beyond city requirements” in assisting those in market-rate units if they choose to move out. Continue reading →

The Fredonia: Sale means new life for 115-year-old Capitol Hill apartment building with proceeds helping to create ‘hundreds of affordable units’ in Seattle

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(Image: Community Roots Housing)

Affordable housing provider and developer Community Roots Housing has sold the 115-year-old, three-story, 12-unit Fredonia building bringing more change to the built environment along Capitol Hill’s 15th Ave E and illustrating there remains a strong market for even the Hill’s oldest and smallest apartment buildings.

It is a free market — the buyer won’t be an affordable property manager or a Public Development Authority. It won’t be the city’s newly formed but not yet operational Seattle Social Housing developer. According to King County property records, the buyer is real estate investor Bryan Syrdal and Tributary Investments, a company that purchases and develops mixed-use properties with market-rate rents. The price for the Fredonia? $5 million.

Tributary has not responded to CHS inquiries but a spokesperson for Community Roots said the sale makes sense for the organization to move on from a historic building with only a handful of units and “a lot of capital needs.” The proceeds from the sale will help Community Roots provide “hundreds of affordable units” elsewhere in the city, the spokesperson said.

UPDATE: Syrdal tells CHS he is looking forward to renovating the building.

“I own and have renovated a number of older properties and used to sit on the Ballard Landmark’s board,” Syrdal writes. “My partners at Meriwether Partners have renovated and own projects of a similar profile.”

Continue reading →

Developer behind big Seattle Old Spaghetti Factory project buys little Capitol Hill office building property

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The Auto Accessories building lurks in red

A developer known for some ambitious Seattle projects including the transformation of the city’s auto row-era Old Spaghetti Factory warehouse into a commercial and residential project is now the proud owner a 1969-built Capitol Hill office building.

Meriwether Partners could be interested in the office space at 13th and Pine but it is also possible that the developer creating the Ainsworth & Dunn renovation and new construction project down toward Elliott Bay has larger plans for the 7,600-foot Capitol Hill property formerly home to a real estate office.

The $3.8 million price tag might be an indication. Continue reading →

Development firm has deal for boarded-up E Olive Way/Denny property once home to In the Bowl, Bus Stop, and Coffee Messiah — UPDATE

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(Image: CHS)

With multiple commercial buildings boarded up and fenced off, the curve of E Olive Way has seen better days. But investor interest remains and a deal reached quietly last year should put one key block on a new path.

CHS has learned Guntower Capital, a holding company formed by executives at two Seattle-area real estate and development firms, is in agreement to purchase the half acre or so property once home to a mix of businesses including the former In the Bowl, the departed Bus Stop bar and Coffee Messiah cafe and a sprawling dog lounge charred in a 2017 fire at the corner of E Olive Way and E Denny Way.

Financial terms of the deal have not been publicly disclosed and CHS is waiting to find out more from Guntower but a memorandum of purchase and sale agreement for the 1924-built, auto-row era structures was signed in August and filed with the county in late November by the investors and the longtime Lu family ownership that has held the property since a $1 million purchase in 1987. Continue reading →

Here’s what it will cost for you to reopen the Capitol Hill Gaybucks

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Want to see new life in the E Olive Way retail building left empty by the abrupt departure of Starbucks?

It is back on the market and looking for a new tenant.

A notice posted to Craigslist before the Thanksgiving holiday has listed a “Former Coffee Shop/Cafe For Lease” at an undisclosed Capitol Hill location.

“Former coffee shop for lease in Capitol Hill,” it reads. “Standalone building with dedicated parking/parking lot. Turnkey opportunity for new user to come in and open up quickly. Great street presence, exposure, signage and foot traffic.” Continue reading →

Predicted real estate tax slowdown has Seattle City Hall scrambling on 2023 budget

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A predicted slowdown in tax collected on the sale of real estate means belt tightening at Seattle City Hall (Image: Seattle.gov)

The Seattle City Council’s process to finalize the city’s budget will be delayed a week and proposed additional spending will face even greater challenges as the latest budget forecasting at City Hall predicts a nearly $80 million revenue shortfall over the next two years over slowdowns in key sectors of the economy.

Budget chair Teresa Mosqueda announced the new forecasts and schedule Wednesday. The city is predicting “a net $64 million decrease in Real Estate Excise Tax revenues,” “a net decrease of $9.4 million in general fund revenues,” and “a net decrease of $4.5 million in revenues from the Sweetened Beverage Tax.”

Mosqueda said the council’s “balancing package” of proposed amendments for the new budget will be delayed a week to Monday, November 14th. Continue reading →

Joe Bar closing after 25 years of community, coffee, crepes, and art on Capitol Hill — UPDATE

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(Image: Joe Bar)

 

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With it from the first day it opened just off Broadway along leafy E Roy in the historic Loveless Building, Wylie Bush is now ready for Joe Bar to rest. Bush announced the much loved cafe will close later this month after 25 years of coffee, crepes, and art on Capitol Hill.

CHS will have more from Bush soon on the decisions and timing behind the closure. In the announcement posted to social media, the guy who helped run the cafe from the first minutes it opened in 1997 and took over ownership three years later says, no, he didn’t really own Joe Bar.

“While it’s technically true that I own Joe Bar–my name is on the lease, and closing is solely my decision–the reality is this place belongs to the people of Capitol Hill,” Bush writes. “Since I took over ownership 22 years ago (!!!), I’ve operated Joe Bar more as a community service than a typical business, for better or worse.” Continue reading →

Calhoun Properties, mother of the aPodment, puts its Seattle portfolio up for sale including Capitol Hill, First Hill, and Central District buildings

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A Calhoun aPodment loft (Image: aPodment)

Calhoun Properties has reshaped many blocks of Capitol Hill and the Central District.

Now the Seattle developer that made aPodment a Kleenex-level brand has put its entire microhousing portfolio including at least nine holdings across Capitol Hill, First Hill, and the Central District on the market.

The Seattle Times reported here on the planned sale of 23 buildings and their 1,402 apartments including ten buildings enjoying soon to expire affordable housing tax breaks. “The buyer could seek to extend some of them, saving around $3.3 million over a decade, according to the marketing brochure, or allow them to expire and raise the rents in those apartments,” the Times reports. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill, Seattle’s White House is for sale

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(Image: @rogernyhus)

Capitol Hill, Seattle’s White House is up for grabs. Communications executive and neighborhood political mover and shaker Roger Nyhus is, well, moving and leaving his 1906-built Capitol Hill mansion behind.

“The four-story home features a parlor, entertaining space, expansive kitchen, half-floor primary bedroom,” the listing site boasts. “Highlights include a secret room concealed behind a bookcase inspired by Young Frankenstein, a full-floor office on the third floor with four private offices, an outdoor deck, built-in fiber and expansive views.”

“The White House is a true entertainer’s home,” it concludes.

The price? $5.975 million. Continue reading →