February 7, 2022

Uptown hotel could flip to apartments

Photo by MarQueen Hotel [enlarge]

The building opened in 1918 as the Seattle Engineering School.

The century-old MarQueen, at 600 Queen Anne Ave. N., had a long varied history even before its conversion to a boutique hotel in 1998. Hurt by the pandemic, like the rest of the hospitality industry, the local owner is now contemplating a reversion to apartments — as it served from 1926 to 1997, when the building last sold. It's on the corner of Mercer Street.

Conflux Architecture filed the recent 70-unit plan for the ownership, an LLC associated with Metropolitan Management. The county lists the hotel as a 55-room operation; though it had 68 or 70 units at the time of the prior hotel conversion. All or most have kitchenettes.

The three-story building is also home to commercial tenants including Caffe Ladro, restaurants Sal y Limon and Racha, plus a hair salon. Its in-house bar and eatery is Tin Lizzie Lounge.

The MarQueen is also a condominium, with the garage and surface stalls owned by Diamond Parking.

The latter use actually meshes with the building's history: It was constructed in 1918 to house workers and trainees at the Ford plant in South Lake Union. (Now Public Storage.) The MarQueen's garage to the east was added in 1920; that now houses the restaurants and a coming Henry's gym.

As it began diversifying into real estate, Vance Lumber bought the MarQueen in 1926, then converted it to apartments under its frequent architect V. W. Voorhees. The east garage shifted to commercial use in the 1980s, after the separate Marqueen Garage business moved to the top of Queen Anne.

Ray Russo runs Metropolitan Management, which last year sold the nearby Inn at Queen Anne to King County. That's now being used to house the formerly homeless. Before, the two Uptown operations shared management, so some business efficiency has been lost. Before the pandemic, both hotels also benefitted from Seattle Center's busy events schedule, which has yet to rebound.

The 35,040-square-foot MarQueen property, which extends north to Roy Street, is zoned up to 85 feet. That might make for an interesting redevelopment play, if the two owners agreed to sell. The hotel isn't landmarked, and it's on the city list of unreinforced masonry buildings.

West across the street from the MarQueen, Metropolitan Management recently did a two-story addition at 617 Queen Anne, yielding a four-story, 52-unit building now dubbed Russo off Mercer. It also has commercial tenants.