By Jack Stubbs
On Wednesday October 25th, the Kendall Lake Building in Snoqualmie sold for $13.1 million, or roughly $234 per square foot, according to public records filed with King County. The buyer was Baumann Family Investment LLC, a private entity affiliated with John Baumann based in Woodinville. The seller was Meriwether Partners, a real estate investment and development company with offices in Seattle and Portland. The deal was recorded on October 31st.
A speculative development built in 2008 by Opus Northwest, the Kendall Lake Building is located in the Snoqualmie Ridge Business Park. The property is comprised of two stories totaling roughly 56,000 square feet. The building sits on a roughly 3.1-acre plot of land. Located at 35030 SE Douglas St., the property is 3 miles to the west of downtown Snoqualmie, one a mile from Fisher Creek Park, and less than a mile from access to transit corridor Snoqualmie Parkway.
The Class A office building is currently occupied by a number of tenants including Democracy Live, a manufacturer of voting ballot systems; Kardin Enterprise Saas, a cloud-based software budget planning platform; and Rudolph Technologies, a designer, developer and manufacturer of metrology and lithography equipment and software. The King County Department of Permitting and Environmental Review also occupies space in the office building.
According to the property listing on loopnet.com, the building subtypes include research and industrial, office space and institutional and governmental uses. The report states that “the property’s tenant roster reflects the appeal and functionality of the building’s design and location.” The report also highlights how the strongly positive area demographic trends and anticipated pricing well-below replacement cost reflects the investment appeal of the property over the short-term and long-term.
Meriwether Partners acquired the office building in December 2011, according to the company’s web site. At acquisition, the building was 68 percent occupied by Rudolph Technologies, Inc. and Barnard Construction. Prior to closing, negotiations were underway with King County for the remaining 21,000 square feet of space. The King County lease commenced in November 2012.
Founded in Seattle in 2002, Meriwether acquires and builds office, mixed-use, multifamily, and industrial properties primarily in Seattle and Portland. Since its founding, Meriwether has acquired and developed over 2.3 million square feet of commercial real estate and invested more than $125 million of equity in 30 transactions with a total capitalization exceeding $400 million, according to its web site. Some of the company’s current on-going investments in Seattle include Russell Hall—a 62,426 square foot mixed-use building in the University District acquired from Unico in Properties in 2016—and Hugo House, an 80-unit apartment and mixed-use project begun in May 2016.
