By Jon Peterson
Chateau Ste. Michelle winery in Woodinville has placed its 118-acre site up for sale, according to marketing materials distributed across the industry over the last couple of weeks. There has been no pricing guidance provided on the potential transaction at this time.
The seller has chosen the Seattle and Portland offices of CBRE to be the listing agent on the sale. Those taking the lead for the real estate services company are Paige Morgan, executive vice president out of the firm’s Portland office and Brett Hartzell, a vice chairman in CBRE’s Seattle office. CBRE did not respond to an email seeking comment for this story.
The planned sale of the site comes with several properties as part of the operation. This includes Chateau tasting rooms, management facilities, office space, a theatre, a warehouse that is at least 100,000 square feet and a barrel storage operation that totals 50,000 square feet.
The winery first started its operation in 1967. It is considered to be the largest winery in the State of Washington. The wine itself is actually produced in Eastern Washington and is then shipped to the operation in Woodinville. The property that is up for sale is is a short car ride from downtown Seattle
There is some uncertainty associated with the potential sale of the property, which could take a long time to close. The large land sale could be purchased by a company that is looking to develop or redevelop the land for alternative uses. Some potential uses that the new owner could consider are industrial, residential, office and life science. All of these property types are in big demand with limited supply on the Eastside.
The winery itself was sold as part of the 2021 sale of Ste. Michelle Estates for $1.3 billion, according to published reports. The buyer was Sycamore Partners, a private equity firm.
