By Jack Stubbs
Seattle’s Denny Triangle neighborhood—located on the southern edge of South Lake Union—has been evolving significantly as some of the region’s largest technology companies look to locate there, and the demand for commercial office space continues.
On June 28th, an office/warehouse building sold for $16.66 million, King County records show. The buyer, 222 Dexter Ave North LLC, shares the same address in California as Pasadena-based Gemdale USA Corporation, a real estate investment and development company that focuses on commercial, multifamily rental and for-sale residential projects in key markets across the country. Additionally, public documents also list the buyer as Vision Real Estate Development Inc. based in Pasadena, California.
Gemdale USA Corporation did not respond to calls for comment about the transaction in time for the publishing of this story. The seller of the property was 234 Dexter LLC, an entity affiliated with W. Bruce Carroll of BC Holdings LLC based in Normany Park, Washington.
The one-story property, located at 228 Dexter Ave. N. adjacent to Denny Park, is a warehouse/office building constructed in 1983 that totals 13,055 square feet, according to public documents. The property, referred to as the Patricia Cameron/Miller Heger Design Gallery, sits on just over half an acre.
It is not entirely clear how much space is available in the building. According to Google Maps, the property is currently occupied by educational company CreativeLive.
The building occupies a prominent location in the city’s downtown core and is just east of Belltown, home to local attractions like the Space Needle and the Chihuly Garden and Glass Museum. The property is also roughly half a mile north of the Amazon Spheres.
Denny Triangle, an area that has only been recognized as its own distinct neighborhood in the city since the early 1990s, has evolved significantly over the last few years in particular, shaped in large part by already-established and emerging technology companies alike.
In third quarter 2018, local developer Vulcan Inc. announced that Google would occupy the developer’s Block 36 Project, a 12-story, 322,000 square foot office project located at 520 Westlake Avenue N. that will serve as the fifth building comprising Google’s larger campus. Block 36 is across the street from the larger four-building, 638,000 square foot mixed-use campus which is also currently underway.
In early June 2019, Cupertino, Calif.-based technology giant Apple announced its plans to sign a lease for the entirety of Kilroy Realty’s 333 Dexter, a 645,000 square foot urban office campus where the company hopes to expand its presence in the market significantly once the building is completed.
Office space along Dexter Avenue continues to be in high-demand. In mid-June, San Diego-based Workplace-as-a-Service company ComoonGrounds Workplace signed a 10-year lease for 31,781 square feet in South Lake Union’s five-story, 100,951 square-foot 1100 Dexter Building.
Elsewhere in South Lake Union, the neighborhood will surely continue to evolve in the coming quarters as companies and developers look to capitalize on the ever-growing technology and life sciences sectors. In mid-April earlier this year, REIT Alexandria Real Estate Equities’ presented its preliminary plans for 11-story office located at 701 Dexter, an undertaking which was asked by the board to return following a re-working of the broader project concepts. Also in mid-April, Vulcan Inc.’s 11-story project located at 300 Dexter Ave. N. And called Block 57 West, was approved at a second Design Review Meeting.
