Bruce Lorig Has Had A Long And Varied Career

BY JERRY CRAIG
Journal city editor

Developers don't have to build huge skyscrapers to make a lasting imprint on their communities.

Like Bruce Lorig, they can take old but interesting buildings, renovate them and convert them to other uses. Or they can

Lorig has made an impact on the city with urban infill, restoration and in-city housing. Photo by Jerry Craig

construct new buildings -- often urban infill structures -- that complement the neighborhood.

Lorig and his company Lorig Associates have been doing projects like these in Seattle since the 1970s. One of the first Lorig projects to make a big impact was the Market Place North condominium development at the Pike Place Market.

Market Place North also made news when it went into default and the bank took it over. But the innovative project broke ground in bringing large-scale residential development into the central city.

Later, Lorig won praise for a series of dramatic school conversion projects, most notably turning Queen Anne High School into The Queen Anne apartments, and Interlake Elementary School into Wallingford Center, a mixed-use commercial and residential complex.

The list of Lorig's projects is long, impressive and varied. But equally impressive is how he has managed to adapt to the cyclical nature of the real estate business.

He helped pioneer the rebirth of in-city living with Market Place North and was an active player in the real estate boom years of the early to mid-1980s.

"Banks were far more generous to developers in those days," says Lorig, often requiring only 5 percent equity in a project instead of today's 25 percent."

Also, tax considerations were almost as important as a project's financial feasibility. As a result, Lorig said, projects were built that probably shouldn't have been.

When the real estate market became overheated in the late 1980s, banks stopped lending. Lorig couldn't find any building projects that made economic sense, so he switched over to the consulting side of his business.

Lorig Associates helped manage the design, construction and financing of the Paramount Theater renovation in downtown Seattle and the Village Theatre in Issaquah, to name just a few.

Another crushing blow to real estate development in the late 1980s was the 1986 Tax Act. "You couldn't write off losses," said Lorig. "It killed off development although it took a few years for some developers to realize it."

Lorig's connections and experience in dealing with public and

Turning Queen Anne High School classrooms into condos, complete with blackboards. Photo by Jim Ball

non-profit agencies helped cushion the building downturn.

He formed public/private partnerships with the Seattle School District, City of Seattle, Historic Seattle Preservation and Development Authority, Seattle Housing Authority and the State of Washington.

Because Lorig wasn't involved in office building construction, the office space glut of the late '80s and early '90s didn't particularly affect him. Lorig has also avoided hotels. He estimates that about two-thirds of his company's projects have been residential or mixed residential-commercial projects.

When the Seattle real estate scene quieted down, Lorig looked elsewhere.

In Tacoma, he converted an old five-story office building into the Cliff Street Lofts for artists, an in-fill project within the Foss Waterway, Theatre District and Union Station redevelopment triangle on the perimeter of downtown.

Then Lorig and Harris Hoffman, a principal in Lorig Associates, decided to take advantage of the booming high-tech economy in Oregon. In Eugene, the company converted an abandoned junior high school into apartments, a community center and quarters for a software company.

The eight-story U.S. Bank Center was built in downtown Eugene, the city's first new highrise office building in 20 years. In typical fashion, Lorig negotiated the sale of a city-owned parcel and then managed the design and construction of the building.

Though Lorig has had success redeveloping old buildings, he advises caution.

"Tackling a building is like starting a business. It involves market research, financial research and paying attention to details."

An example of this is the Commodore-Duchess Apartments in Seattle's University District, a joint venture with the University of Washington to renovate 140 units of student housing. "Before we started we tore part of the building apart and got the plumbers in there to inspect."

Lorig has also combined renovation with new construction. A current example is the Victoria Apartments on Queen Anne Hill. Lorig plans to renovate the landmark 1920s era structure and add a row of 10 luxury townhouses along the property's back side.

Besides the Victoria, another current Lorig project is The Willis Condominiums at the foot of Queen Anne Avenue. It will be Lorig's seventh project on Queen Anne Hill and his fourth condominium project.

Other current or proposed Lorig projects include: an apartment-retail complex atop two three-story parking garages in downtown Eugene; student housing at Washington State University and Seattle University; and buildings for the Bellevue Art Museum and Antioch University at Sixth and Battery in Seattle.