October 4, 2022

Ballard's historic Paymaster Building up for sale

Photos by Brent Loe courtesy of Lee & Associates [enlarge]

Kirtland K. Cutter, who also designed the Stimson-Green Mansion on First Hill and the Rainier Club, was the building’s architect.

At 2116 N.W. Vernon Place, just outside of the protected Ballard Avenue Landmark District, sits the historic Paymaster Building. This charming two-story brick property, with 3,769 square feet of space, dates back to 1911. It was originally built by Stimson Lumber Co. as an office and was also the spot where the Stimson Mill payroll cash was stored and where Stimson's workers would line up to get their wages (hence the building's name). Men would line up to one side of the property and receive their wages through a small window cut into the building's side.

That window still exists today, as does the company safe, which is painted with beautiful pastoral scenes of Scotland and placed behind a similarly painted vault door. “The safe was designed to be too large to pull through the vault doorway by a thief on horseback,” Brian Regan, the building's current owner, shared during a recent tour of the property.

Regan, a local developer who owns several historic buildings in Ballard, purchased the property in 2017 for $3.3 million and is now selling it at an asking price of $4.2 million. The site is zoned for industrial and commercial use. When Regan purchased the Paymaster Building it was home to a local artist and friend of the Stimson family who lived and worked there. Regan renovated the space for use as offices and until recently the building was home to a tech company.

[enlarge]

The site has enough space to build an additional four-story commercial building.

Interiors have been thoughtfully restored and the property is ready as a plug-and-play for office use but could also be used for other commercial businesses such as a restaurant. There are restrooms on the ground level, a large bathroom on the top, and the whole building is fitted with a modern HVAC system and has air conditioning.

Many original and unique features remain in addition to the safe (which the previous owner used to store her collection of historic firearms), vault, and paymaster window. These include original wooden floors, wooden ceiling beams and rounded doorway alcoves on the top level.

The building sits on a 10,000-square-foot site that includes a 720-square-foot detached garage with approximately 250 square feet of finished office space. If the garage were demolished, there would be enough excess land and untapped development capacity for an investor to build an additional four-story commercial building around the existing property. The site also has 13 gated parking spaces, something rarely found in Ballard.

The property is not currently landmarked and is therefore not protected from demolition or significant redevelopment. Regan said he hopes that whoever buys it will fall in love with the historic building as much as he has and that it will continue to stand in its current form either as an office or some other commercial venture.

“We are excited to find a new visionary for this unique property, perfect for an owner-user looking to occupy and expand their business in one of Seattle's most vibrant neighborhoods,” Candice Chevaillier, one of the brokers from Lee & Associates who is listing the building, shared. The additional brokers are Alex Muir, Daniel Lim and Stuart Williams.