The property housing Ivar’s Acres of Clams, the restaurant’s flagship location at Pier 54 on Seattle’s waterfront and one of Seattle’s most beloved restaurant destinations, sold for $39.5 million to an LLC associated with A.F. Gilmore Co. The buyer is a family-owned company with ties to Los Angeles. The group owns the landmark Original Farmers Market in Los Angeles.
Ivar’s, which first started out as a fish bar back in 1983, now has multiple operations on the pier and secondary restaurants around the Puget Sound region. Two years ago, Ivar’s completed a $20 million renovation, which forced the restaurant to close for 273 days until it reopened July 1st, 2015. The closure was due to the Seawall Project construction, which affected multiple businesses along the waterfront. The multimillion dollar transformation included an expanded kitchen, additional seating and an outdoor patio.
With that renovation, the restaurant made space for more than 600 people and added an outdoor seating area that accommodates more than 140 people, where diners can sit fireside. The adjoining fish bar also received an expanded and improved dining area, which accommodates 230 guests, as well as a new ordering window and quick-serve kitchen. Outside of the updates to the interior, the 55,000 square foot pier received a renovation which included new retail space, 20,000 square feet of office space and new LED lighting that uses 80 percent less power.
There are 23 Ivar’s fast casual seafood bars and three full-service restaurants: Ivar’s Acres of Clams, Ivar’s Salmon House and Ivar’s Mukilteo Landing.
Ivar’s Salmon House, located at 401 N.E. Northlake Way, sold for $13.7 million last year to an LLC associated with the Bellevue-based Fana Group.
