October 6, 2022

Silver Cloud buys SoDo lot for over $13M, with development planned

Photo by Marcus & Millichap [enlarge]

Looking roughly south, the lot is directly north of the red Silver Cloud Stadium.

A parking lot at 1032 First Ave. S. sold yesterday for $13.5 million, according to broker Marcus & Millichap, which announced the deal. King County also recorded the sale on Wednesday.

M&M's Stren Lea represented the seller in a deal worth about $750 per square foot. M&M said there were multiple offers, and that the winning bid was all cash.

The seller was the Apple family, which had owned the property since 1968 — before the stadiums were developed nearby, including the Kingdome. The lot is directly west of WaMu Theater, on the south end of Lumen Field, and steps from T-Mobile Park. It's sometimes used for food trucks as well as parking

The buyer was an LLC associated with Silver Cloud Inns & Hotels, which operates a 211-room hotel next door to the south, at 1046 First, on the corner of South Royal Brougham Way. The north lot will add to the latter's parking — now 124 underground stalls. That hotel dates to 2005. (Update: The buyer’s broker was Dave Speers of Kidder Mathews.)

The 18,000-square-foot lot is zoned up to 120 feet (for residential use), or to 85 feet for offices. M&M says the zoning would allow a hotel, offices, condos or apartments.

M&M also says the new owner has “the goal of eventual redevelopment,” on a site that's in the Pioneer Square Preservation District. (Few realize there's a district dogleg running down First to Royal Brougham, so any new plans will require preservation board approval.) The DJC was unable to reach Silver Cloud before deadline to comment. No new plans have been filed.