July 11, 2022

Ethan Stowell to flip empty Eastlake bank to Victor Tavern

Photo by Brian Miller [enlarge]

A change of use from drive-through banking to sit-down dining.

Would you like to make a deposit? Perhaps, directly to your stomach, could we recommend the polenta fries, calamari and a Chuckanut Brewing Mexican lager?

Early in 2020, just before the pandemic struck, Alexandria Real Estate Equities paid a little over $5 million for a Bank of America branch at 1600 Eastlake Ave. E. BoA closed the branch not long thereafter. Over a year ago, NAIOP sponsored an adaptive reuse design challenge for the vacant little building. Nothing came of it but cobwebs.

Now, finally, there's a plan from Ethan Stowell Restaurants to open a third location for its popular Victor Tavern at 1600 Eastlake. It was filed last week by Okano Picard Studio, with Stowell as the tenant.

The 21-year-old building isn't large, with some 4,152 square feet. It sits on the corner of East Garfield Street. New outdoor seating will be added on the quieter east side of the building; that will undergo a gut renovation. No general contractor is indicated at this time, and Ethan Stowell Restaurants didn't respond to a DJC query.

Some surface parking will be preserved within the L-shape of the companion 1616 Eastlake building, also owned by Alexandria, and now dubbed Alexandria LaunchLabs. That REIT has a large and growing footprint along Eastlake, now with around 1 million square feet, so a new eatery for life-science workers should be quite welcome.

The first Victor Tavern opened in the Denny Triangle, within the Via6 apartment tower, in 2020. The second, at Skanska's 2+U downtown, opened only last week. (It replaced a previously announced Tavolata, also from Stowell, which fell victim to the pandemic; the interiors and kitchen were done, with the signage hung, just in time for COVID-19.)

Stowell and Okano Picard most recently worked together on the new Ballard Pizza Co. at The Schoolhouse District in Woodinville.

On Eastlake, the former drive-through bank has a somewhat convoluted history: BoA sold the entire property to Washington Holdings in 2001, and that gave rise to the five-story, 168,000-square-foot 1616 Eastlake building. As part of the deal, Washington Holdings also built the bank its new branch to the west; that developer then sold the larger new east building to Alexandria in 2003 for $34.7 million.

Then, two years ago, Alexandria succeeded in assembling the entire property. We'll drink to that.