By Meghan Hall
After almost two years of vacancy, F5’s Tower Hotel will see new ownership—and guests. According to public records, an entity associated Seoul, South Korea-based Lotte Hotels has purchased the hotel, along with The Sanctuary—a former church whose recent renovation shave transformed it into an event space—for a combined $174.874 million. The buyer is referred to as LI-HI Seattle Hotel Propco LLC in public documents, while the seller of both properties was San Francisco-based Stockbridge Capital Partners.
The hotel portion of F5 Tower includes 189 luxury rooms. Originally, the hotel was slated to be operated by SLS, a luxury hotel brand who abruptly terminated its operations contract at the end of 2017. Since then, the hotel has sat largely vacant. The hotel and spa is located on floors three through 15 of the building, located at 801 Fifth Ave.
The Sanctuary is the nation’s oldest Beaux Arts-style building and the oldest church in downtown Seattle, according to its website. The organization was founded in 1853, with its current location established in 1908. In 2007, the Church announced a deal with Daniels Real Estate to preserve the sanctuary and build a new church—an effort that would cost about $40 million. The Sanctuary will continue to act as the hotel’s meeting and event space.
Together, the two properties were developed by Daniels Real Estate and Stockbridge Capital. The development was completed in 2017, and to-date is one of the tallest towers in Seattle.
The sale of the F5 Tower Hotel follows the recent sale of the office component of the tower to KKR for $458 million. The office portion of the tower includes 516,000 square feet of office space, high-speed destination elevators and fiber optic wiring. KKR also purchased The Summit, in Bellevue, bringing its acquisition along with F5 to $1.2 billion.
