April 3, 2017

Seattle Opera sells site for $16.2M

As expected, Seattle Opera has sold the property it previously leased to Teatro ZinZanni for the past 10 years. The price was $16.2 million.

The approximately 44,000-square-foot parcel is at 222 Mercer St., filling most of the block that is north across Mercer from McCaw Hall.

The buyer was 225 Roy LLC, which is an entity of Washington Real Estate Holdings.

That firm has hired developer Barrientos + Ryan and architect GGLO to put a new mixed-use apartment building on the site, which has now been cleared. Early plans for that project will be presented to the city on Wednesday.

Proceeds from the sale will help Seattle Opera build a new office, operations and educational facility at the southwest corner of Mercer and Fourth Avenue North. Demolition of the old Mercer Arena is already underway on that site, which Seattle Opera will lease from the city. The new four-story, 105,000-square-foot building will be called Seattle Opera at the Center. It was designed by NBBJ and will be built by Lease Crutcher Lewis. Shiels Obletz Johnsen is the project manager.

In an update, Barrientos + Ryan says the eight-story apartment building will have between 250 and 275 units, contrary to an earlier figure of 320. Twenty percent of those units will be affordable, via the city's MFTE and HALA incentive programs. Hewitt is the landscape architect and Exxel Pacific will be the general contractor.

The dinner theater/circus Teatro ZinZanni, which also operates in San Francisco, held its last Seattle performance March 5. It has yet to find a new local site to rent.