By Jon Peterson
The development market in the greater Puget Sound region had slowed down, but the activity around the region is making one family hopeful that a site it owns in downtown Seattle may attract some interest from the development community. The Creighton family, which has owned 901 Lenora Street in Seattle for a very long time has placed on the market for sale that site in hopes to attract a variety of buyers. There was no pricing guidance available for the planned sale at this time, however, other development sites in the area have traded between $1,500 to $2,000 per square foot over the past several years, according to sources familiar with this part of Seattle. The site up for sale totals 21,600 square feet of land.
The current property owner has awarded the sales listing to the Seattle office of Lee & Associates. Among those working on the sale are Stuart Williams, principal, and Alex Muir, vice president.
The development site is located at the border of South Lake Union in the Denny Triangle in Seattle on the corner of 9th Avenue and Lenora Street. The location offers four potential development options for the site. These could include office, hotel, multifamily and mixed-use uses. One of the likely scenarios could include a hotel and office on the lower floors with multifamily above them.
The land for the site is currently zoned for downtown mixed commercial. If the new owner decides to pursue residential development, that option could total 500 or more units. A mixed-use building could total 483,000 square feet.
It is projected that the development project could take four to five years to be fully complete.
There is an existing two-story building on the site totaling 21,600 square feet. The tenant is the Morningside Academy, and it has two years remaining on its lease. Standard Parking has a lease for the surface parking, which totals 36 surface parking spaces. The revenue from these tenants will provide more than $492,000 of annual income while the new owner takes the property through the pre-development process.
The property has a strong location for companies and businesses. This part of Seattle is home to many of the major tech companies such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google. It’s an easy walk to a Whole Foods store. There is also the South Lake Union light rail that has a stop near the site. 901 Lenora is also very accessible to bicycles, which is important for many segments of the population in this neighborhood.
