December 23, 2021

Da Li spends nearly $10M for corner near Seattle Center, with two more sales to drop

Image by ESG [enlarge]

This is not a new plan, but only an indication of where Da Li is growing its site south of John Street.

Weeks after selling one large development site near Seattle Center, Da Li Properties has begun assembling another at 130 Fifth Ave. N. King County recorded the first sale, for over $9.7 million, on Wednesday. That represents about 13,600 square feet on the corner of John Street.

Da Li says that two more sales are pending to the south. Those parcels, now with different owners, will bring the assemblage to about 27,000 square feet. This story will likely be updated online with those deals. Da Li says it's planning a new office/lab building. The architect hasn't yet been named, and the project isn't yet in design review. The land is zoned up to 160 feet.

North on the corner, the seller was Supreme Bright Seattle LLC, associated with Dallas hotel developer NewcrestImage, which acquired its site early last year for $8.5 million.

JLL represented the seller. For the land, the deal was worth about $717 per square foot. The corner, at John Street, is now used for parking and as an interim-use neighborhood delivery hub operated by REEF.

With architect ESG, NewcrestImage had been planning an 11-story, 196-room hotel. Those plans began before the pandemic froze the hospitality industry. That plan is now dead.

One block north of the site, at 222 Fifth Ave. N., Da Li and architect Gensler took a life-science project through design review — but not all the way to a master use permit. Instead, Da Li just sold what's long been a McDonald's-leased corner to LPC West and Intercontinental Real Estate for $42 million. That deal was about three weeks ago.

For Da Li's two pending sales, the two south parcels each have 6,780 square feet. One has been family owned for decades; the other last traded for $365,000 in 1998. Kidder Mathews appears to be selling 112 Fifth, which now being used for an escape room. That building is old and in poor condition, as is the apparently vacant 118 Fifth. The two buildings are immediately north of the Fat City garage.