Downtown Seattle Fire Closes First Avenue
A fire on First Avenue in downtown Seattle closed that road to traffic in both directions Thursday afternoon. Firefighters were sent at 2:34 p.m. to the blaze in the 1900 block of First Avenue. The building on fire was the historic Butterworth Building, built in 1910. It’s located within the […]
Retail? Start With the First Floor
First floor retail must be considered from a cost-versus-benefit perspective. Shopping malls, restaurants and retail storefronts shape our urban experience. Unfortunately, first floor retail space in new residential or office buildings is too frequently neglected. As a result, developers, brokers, designers and the public miss out on an opportunity to […]
Old Cold Storage Turns Into a Hot New Address
To the casual observer, buying a defunct cold storage facility as an investment seems absurd, but then a casual observer doesn’t know much about real estate in Seattle. David Zarett, a 36-year-old developer of Zarett Properties, knows plenty about real estate in the Puget Sound region. To him, the deal […]
Cobalt Takes Big Chunk of Rehabbed Space
The Internet company Cobalt Group Inc., fresh from its initial public offering, leased 75,000 square feet in developer David Zarett’s rehabbed Olympic Cold Storage building south of the Kingdome. The deal turns another risky spec project into a likely success. Cobalt, which provides Web services for auto dealers, will occupy […]
Investors Buy North Lake Union Parcel
An investment group led by David Zarett paid $3.58 million for a second half-block property overlooking the north end of Lake Union. Northlake LLC now owns the full block along North Northlake Way between Wallingord Avenue North and Burke Avenue North. The investment group bought the 0.47-acre site at 3301 […]
Stadiums Only Part of Development Explosion
On the face of it, Seattle’s two new professional sports stadiums might not be expected to ignite a renaissance of the largely industrial area around them. For one thing, the Mariners and Seahawks are no strangers to the area. The teams have already played there for years, nourishing various Pioneer […]
Value of Zulily’s Building Shoots Up 38% in Seven Years
For tech companies and real estate investors, there’s some seriously good juju going on at First and Walker in Seattle’s Sodo neighborhood. Tech companies, including Zulily, have had great success in the 114-year-old building that sits at the corner, and it’s paid off handsomely for different real estate investors over […]
Lofts are Pike-Pine’s Latest Upmarket Move
Kauri Investments Ltd. has received its city development permit to convert a vacant, four-story warehouse in Capitol Hill’s gentrifying Pike-Pine corridor into 26 art-loft condos. A $3 million conversion of the now-windowless shell of a structure at 11th Avenue and East Pike Street will likely begin in January and finish […]
An Ice-Age Building Now Sports Nifty Offices
At first glance you’d think David Zarett might be looking for a job at The Cobalt Group headquarters south of Safeco Field. With his mop of curly hair, casual clothes and cool sunglasses, he blends in with the young techies building Web sites for auto dealers. But Zarett’s just there […]
Alaska Trade Building Purchase
A Seattle-based partnership led by investor David Zarett paid $7 million to buy the Alaska Trade Building and the adjacent Butterworth Building, in the 1900 block of First Avenue in Seattle, from investors including Paul Liao of engineering firm KCM Inc., property records show. Sally Patterson and Dan Stutz of […]
Cobalt Building Sells for $20M
The 98-year-old Cobalt Building near Qwest Field in Seattle has been sold by Zarett Properties for $20 million. The 122,000-square-foot building at 2200 First Ave. S. was bought by UCM/FPI-Cobalt LLC. David Zarett bought the building in 1997 for $1.2 million and renovated the structure, which now lists Starbucks Corp., […]
Madison Street Heats Up
Gritty stretch of Madison Street will soon shine Andrew Taylor has watched this soiled stretch of Madison Street languish for 16 years. Boutiques and pricey restaurants flooded into Madison Valley a few blocks to the east. Downtown and Capitol Hill boomed to the west. But in between, the eight blocks […]
Investor Eyes Office Project for N. Lake Union Site
Seattle investor David Zarett has doubled the size of his holdings on the north end of Lake Union, where he now is considering developing an office project instead of residential condos. Last week, Zarett paid just under $3.6 million for slightly less than a half-acre at 3301 Burke Ave. N.. […]
So Long to Blue-Collar Zone?
When city leaders set out five years ago to save the Duwamish industrial area for industry, Seattle’s blue-collar backbone seemed safe. Today, its future is muddier than its namesake river. The city, with help from lobbyists, is completing a growth plan that would allow up to 3.3 million square feet […]
Capitol Hill Business Notes
In November 2013, the owners of Samadhi Yoga told CHS they planned to close the 12th/Pike studio after 15 years at 12th and Pike. But then came word that new partners and a possible new tea shop might just mean a change of plans. The studio’s location is now empty — Samadhi announced its […]
A Tale of Two Markets
In Seattle, everything old is new again but in Bellevue new still means new. Office space vacancy rates are reaching historic lows on both sides of Lake Washington, 3.2 percent in Seattle and 3.8 percent for Bellevue last quarter, according to real estate reports. And while the push on either […]