April 9, 2025

Doyle Building could become apartment tower

Photo via Newmark [enlarge]

The century-old building now has much empty space, at grade and above.

Back in 2012, during the long boom following the Great Recession, Fana Group paid nearly $8.6 million for downtown's landmarked A.E. Doyle Building. That was almost double the price of the prior trade, only two years before.

Now Fana appears poised to sell the four-story office building at 119 Pine St., on the corner of Second Avenue. It's not publicly listed for sale. Leasing materials from Newmark indicate substantial vacancy in a down market.

Architect Clark Barnes filed a residential conversion plan this week that would add a 12-story mass-timber tower to the century-old structure. That could yield 150 units, presumably leaving the ground-floor retail intact. And the ornate Italian Renaissance-style facades would be strictly protected.

Even so, all commercial tenants, upstairs and down, would have to exit for such a dramatic new repurposing — which would take a few years. (The downtown office market will take longer than that to recover.) Current tenants include a BECU branch and MIG SvR.

The prospective new owner, 2nd and Pine LLC, includes BNBuilders, which could then act as the general contractor. The early plan, with a nominal value of $30 million, states that “the existing building interior will need to be extensively remodeled to accommodate the addition.” Structural engineering would also be a challenge, with new loads placed on the old foundation. Four parking stalls, for loading, would be added to the west alley.

In its current form, the building has about 28,000 square feet of offices above the ground-floor retail, with about 6,200 square feet, and a full basement. The county now assesses the Doyle Building at about $10.7 million.

The building was landmarked in 1987. Today, its namesake is original architect A.E. Doyle. When it opened circa 1920, it was named after the J.S. Graham women's apparel store. The working title for the new 16-story proposal is simply 2nd and Pine.

Given new zoning heights and design review exemptions from the city, intended to foster more downtown housing, the main hurdle to a master use permit would be approval from the city's Landmarks Preservation Board; that's still required. The Doyle Building hasn't yet popped up on the board's schedule, but it may soon — though whether before or after a sale remains to be seen.

Fana Group has previously been willing to hold property investments for long periods before selling. Two examples in downtown Bellevue sold in recent years to Capstone Partners and, separately, to Patrinely Group and Dune Real Estate Partners (aka Four106).

Near the Seattle Convention Center Fana still holds the parking lot at 802 Pine, where a 55-story hotel/residential tower was once envisioned. (The lot traded in 2006.) Fana, led by entrepreneur Firoz Lalji, has its roots in the old Kits Cameras chain and IT company Zones.