May 5, 2023

Buying a home? An office? Why not both?

Photo via Paragon Real Estate Advisors [enlarge]

Car not included, but the hot tub is.

An unusual hybrid sales listing appeared last fall in the Uptown neighborhood. And this week there was a price reduction for the mixed-use building at 160 Roy St. Michael Urquhart and Cathy Jeney at Paragon Real Estate Advisors are now asking $5.5 million for what's nominally a small 48-year-old office building.

The property was once owned and perhaps occupied by Brenneke School of Massage. The ground-floor tenant today is Dreamclinic Massage, with a lease extending into 2026. Most of the second floor is parking, accessed from the alley; offices on that level and the third floor total about 4,056 square feet — all vacant.

Then the listing gets a little more interesting. A rooftop penthouse apartment was added by the owner in 2006, along with striking orange seismic bracing facing Roy. All that work was by Ainsley Architects, the seller, which had its offices there.

The Ainsley penthouse, with hot tub and a large deck facing Seattle Center, is suitably swank, with three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a designer kitchen and some 2,418 square feet. And there's a private elevator from the garage, which has six stalls.

All together, the brokers value the building at $606 per rentable square foot. The sloping midblock property isn't large, with 4,320 square feet. For developers with tear-down intentions, it's zoned up to 65 feet. And all the shops and restaurants of Lower Queen Anne are only steps away.

The building last traded in 2003, pre-renovation, for about $1.2 million. The brokers suggest the penthouse could be an Airbnb. The small second-floor office space could flip to similar use. Or the penthouse might be convertible to offices, though that would be a pity. As the building stands now, it offers a very short commute to the office.