Seattle Curtain site sells for $13M; 279 apartments planned

Daily Journal of Commerce | Brian Miller

Above rendering: A mix of large and small retail spaces would be built along 12th Avenue. The site is near Yesler Terrace.

A development site where 279 apartments are planned, at 104 12th Ave., has sold in two deals worth $13 million. King County recorded the sales from two separate family groups on Monday.

The buyer was Centric Partners LLC, which is associated with Alchemy Real Estate. Centric and architect Clark Barnes have successfully taken their apartment plan through design review. The seven-story 12th & Yesler would occupy much of the west half of a block also bounded by East Fir Street and East Yesler Way.

The two properties were listed in 2017. Orion Commercial Partners’ David Butler and Scott Clements represented the Capeluto family. Its Seattle Curtain Manufacturing Co., on the southwest corner of the block, is a third-generation business with a 75-year history. The family had owned the property for decades. That sale was for $7.5 million.

The northwest corner was owned by the Van Huynh family, which acquired that property in 1999 for $285,000. It sold for $5.5 million. Nick Upshaw of Windermere Real Estate was their broker.

All the old buildings, also home to Saba Ethiopian Cuisine and an auto body shop, would be removed. The site totals a little over an acre. No permits have been issued, and there are no records on file for any kind of a construction permit application.

The 12th & Yesler project would include 134 underground parking stalls, plus retail space and a roof deck. The team also includes Karen Kiest Landscape architects.

Separately, Seattle Housing Authority owns the east side of the block, at 1215 E. Fir St., which it purchased from King County. With Mithun as their architect, Capitol Hill Housing and Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation and Development Authority are planning to ground lease the property for a 158-unit affordable housing complex.

A woonerf is tentatively planned to separate the two developments. However, King County still owns a roughly half-acre parcel that would be nestled within the L-shape of 12th & Yesler. The future of the old-records warehouse on that parcel is unclear.