December 30, 2025

So long, Commuter Building

Dickson Demolition photo via Facebook [enlarge]

This drone view shows crews with Dickson Demolition hard at work on the south Commuter Building.

Visitors along Seattle's waterfront and in Pioneer Square — along with several DJC reporters, lingering at windows — have been stopping to gape at the gutting of the 120-year-old building complex at 800 Alaskan Way, between Alaskan and Western Avenue, spanning Columbia to Marion streets.

Demolition permits for the two turn-of-the-century structures were issued in October, the DJC reported last month. Those permits were initiated five years ago, back when Martin Selig Real Estate planned a 14-story office and apartment tower there.

A lot has changed since then, and the site has more humble plans for the immediate future: surface parking, with just over 100 stalls for the block's current owner (and former lender), Acore Capital.

But with the waterfront's public remaking and next summer's FIFA Men's World Cup bringing more foot traffic along the building's west side, the site's future could be as open as its walls are now.

Urban Renaissance Group is in charge of the demolition, working with BNBuilders; architect Perkins&Will; Dickson Demolition and Abatement of Tacoma; and Coughlin Porter Lundeen, the civil engineer.

Photo by Brian Miller, File [enlarge]

The south structure as seen in 2017 when the viaduct still stood.

Dickson completed the fill work over the past few weeks and headed right to that very visible high-reach demolition work last Tuesday, using a long-reach excavator to pull down the south structure's south unreinforced masonry wall and portions of the building on its waterfront side at 800 Alaskan Way, across the street from Colman Dock.

The complex's south structure, next to the small lot on Columbia Street, was long used for parking. The north Commuter Building was for years office space for Windermere Real Estate, with Dania selling furniture below.

The Marion Street pedestrian bridge that runs by the edge of the Commuter complex just opened in 2023 after a rebuild, and will be closed around the clock for about four weeks starting Jan. 5. During that time, all Colman Dock pedestrian access will be at street level only, Washington State Ferries said.

Stay tuned for more on the Commuter complex's last gasps. With the DJC's front-row seat on this big knock-down, we will surely have more updates for our readers before work on the new parking lot wraps up this spring.