October 19, 2016

Hansen buys SoDo property for $25M

Chris Hansen paid $25 million for a century-old former warehouse and adjacent parking lot, as he continues to buy land near the site where he hopes to build a new sports arena.

King County records list the buyer as WSA Properties XII LLC, which is associated with Hansen. The San Francisco financier was raised in this area and wants to return the Sonics to Seattle.

The seller, 1518 First LLC, is associated with local developer Henbart, which acquired the Taylor Edwards Building in 2011 in a foreclosure. (It previously sold for $9.5 million.) No brokers were involved in the sale.

The six-story building is at 1518 First Ave. S., half a block south of Safeco Field, and dates to 1907. It sits on a 9,000-square-foot site and has about 48,000 square feet of leasable space, with the ground floor occupied by Henry's Tavern.

The sale also includes an 8,000-square-foot parking lot, which Henbart acquired in 2011 for $1.7 million.

North of the building, facing Edgar Martinez Drive South, is a 24,000-square-foot parking lot still owned by Baseball Club of Seattle, owner of the Mariners.

Last month a Hansen-related LLC spent $32 million for two warehouse properties totaling 4.88 acres on Occidental Avenue South, south of his proposed arena site.

The Taylor Edwards Building purchase now gives him 12.65 acres of land in SoDo. His net investment in SoDo is reported to be $122.5 million.

Hansen has a memorandum of understanding with the city of Seattle that expires in November 2017 if he doesn't secure an NBA team. The agreement would grant some public financing for the proposed stadium.

In May, the city council rejected his request for a partial vacation of Occidental Avenue for the proposed arena.