February 9, 2017

City landmark board to consider 1921 funeral home, where offices planned

Photo from BOLA Architecture + Planning [enlarge]

An LLC owned by Bill Pollard and developer Doug Waddell want to keep the exterior and rehab the interior to create “authentic and creative” office space.

On March 1, Seattle's Landmarks Preservation Board will consider nominating Bleitz Funeral Home at 316 Florentia St. on Queen Anne as a city landmark.

The meeting is at 3:30 p.m. in Room L2-80 of City Hall at 600 Fourth Ave.

The funeral home property recently sold for $4.2 million to Warm Springs Investors LLC, owned by Bill Pollard and developer Doug Waddell, who plan an office project there.

The main Bleitz property overlooks Lake Washington Ship Canal. It has a large parking lot and the funeral home, which was completed in 1921. The sale also included a small parking lot south of Florentia.

Pollard is with Talon Private Capital, but he said in an email yesterday that the Bleitz office project is not associated with Talon.

He said the plan is to preserve the unique exterior of the building, rehab the interior and reposition it as office space for small- to mid-size companies that want “an authentic and creative facility.”

SkB Architects is the designer and Foushee & Associates Co. is the general contractor. David Abbott, Greg Inglin and Connor McClain of Colliers International are the leasing agents.

Pollard said future plans call for constructing a new office building on the adjacent parking lot, probably with ground floor retail, but he said it's too early to know the size or timing of that project.

Pollard said the property is remarkable because it is near Fremont and the Burke Gilman trail, and has views of Lake Union.

BOLA Architecture + Planning prepared the landmark nomination application at the request of Warm Springs. It is at http://tiny.cc/t3m2iy under “Current Nominations.”

BOLA writes that the original two-and-a-half story funeral home combines a vernacular building with an eclectic revival-style facade. The identities of the designer and builder are unknown. According to the firm, a single-story addition was designed by KSWA Architects, and built in 1989-1991.

Written comments are due by Feb. 28 to Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board, Seattle Department of Neighborhoods, P.O. Box 94649, Seattle, WA 98124-4649.

In Seattle, the landmark nomination process is required in certain circumstances as part of getting a land use permit if a site has a building that could meet the landmark criteria.

A city landmark cannot be significantly altered without a permit from the board. It may be demolished only if the owner can demonstrate there is no reasonable economic use.