September 23, 2024

Pacific Building changes hands in keys-to-lender deal

Photo by Brian Miller [enlarge]

The Pacific Building, center, now looks to be half empty.

A decade back, through an LLC, Brickman bought downtown's Pacific Building for over $50.3 million. As of last week, there's a new owner for the 54-year-old office tower at 720 Third Ave. : the lender, an arm of Rialto Capital Management.

The DJC published a May public notice for a receiver's sale to be held in August. The largely empty 23-story building, on the corner of Columbia Street, then found no buyer. Thus the county's recently recorded zero-dollar conveyance to new entity FS Rialto Pacific Building LLC. Since June, the property had been controlled by a local trustee and a Rialto-related lender.

At street level on Third, most know the Pacific Building for the busy northbound bus stop in front, for the Top Pot Doughnuts (closed since the pandemic) and for Seattle Credit Union (still open). Above, there are some 133,190 square feet of offices. Colliers represents the space, which looks to be about 46% vacant.

Running up Columbia is a seven-story structured parking garage with 216 stalls.

Brickman, based in New York, has fared poorly with its Seattle office investments. It recently lost the Joseph Vance, Broderick and Miken buildings when Orton Development bought the non-performing loans. Orton may convert the Vance to apartments.

For the Pacific Building, Rialto had loaned Brickman about $46 million in 2021. The county now values the property at about $28.6 million. Rialto has been an occasional presence here as a lender and investor. The private asset manager lists Miami, New York and Santa Monica as its primary offices. It manages over $90 billion in commercial mortgage-backed security debt (CMBS loans).

With floorplates averaging around 8,559 square feet, the Pacific Building isn't a conversion candidate for apartments.