Onni Group Buys Bellevue’s Doxa John Danz Building for $116MM

By Meghan Hall

The Eastside town of Bellevue, Wash. has attracted the interest of many large scale and well-known developers over the course of the last year as many of the region’s largest companies look to expand their presence outside of Seattle’s South Lake Union and Central Business districts. Vancouver, Canada-based Onni Group is no stranger to the Puget Sound area, and the developer is continuing to show its interest in the region with the purchase of Bellevue’s Doxa John Danz Building for $116 million from Sterling Realty Organization Company (SRO). According to public documents, the sale closed on February 12, 2019. 

Located at 600 106th Ave. NE., the 40,245 square foot building was built in 1961. According to SRO’s website, the building has around 37,664 square feet of rentable space. The building originally opened as a 1500 seat theater named after John Danz, an early Seattle film exhibitor. Sterling Realty Organization — formerly Sterling Recreation Organization — was founded by Danz in 1912, and by 1986 the company had a diverse corporate portfolio of over 130 motion picture screens, seven bowling centers and 9 radio stations. However, the company eventually sold off most of its theater operations, instead maintaining and diversifying its real estate portfolio in the area. The sale of the John Danz Building comes after decades of ownership on the part of SRO.

The sale has been long anticipated; reports of the transaction have been circulating since the third quarter of 2018. Onni Group submitted a planning application for the site back in April 2018 to construct three, 600-foot towers at the site. Two of the towers would be residential, while the third would be reserved for offices. At-grade retail was also proposed for certain locations at the site. However, according to public documents, a new set of planning applications has been submitted at the end of January 2018. Three residential office and residential towers are still planned, but the site could also include a hotel site and below-ground parking.

Currently, the building contains office and commercial space, as well as an auditorium that is home to Doxa Church. Onni Group is currently investing and developing in several major projects throughout the Seattle region. The company’s first Seattle acquisition was the purchase of the Seattle Times headquarters in 2013, where Onni is building 825 apartment units and up to 272 corporate housing units. More recently, Onni Group spent $78.75 million for a two-tower development site called Block V in downtown Seattle, purchasing the property — entitled for 638 units — from Clise Properties in September 2018. The company is developing 24 million square feet in major markets across the United States, including Los Angeles, Seattle, Chicago, Phoenix, Toronto and Vancouver.