New Owner, New Plans for Warshal's Site

SEATTLE-1000 First Avenue Properties LLC, a local investor and builder group, plans to construct a 24-story hotel and condominium tower on the site of the former Warhsal’s Sporting Goods store Downtown. As planned, the project would consist of a 14-floor boutique hotel with 120 rooms topped by 10 floors containing 38 luxury condos that will have access to all hotel services. A groundbreaking for the estimated two-year construction project is set for this summer.

Hotel developer Gordon Sondland paid $1 million for a 50% interest in the property in 1997 with N. Jack Alhadeff, a real estate broker and investor. In 2001, the duo received a Master Use Permit for a 25-story building with 128 hotel rooms topped by 72 apartment units. Alhadeff tells GlobeSt.com he and Sondland are now is in the process of selling their share of the entitled property to the group that made the announcement, though he declined to provide any further detail.

The hotel and condo tower is scheduled to break ground in the summer of 2004 and be complete two years later. Plans for the hotel include a restaurant, full-service spa, fitness center and 7,000 sf of meeting and event space, including a 2,000-sf patio for outdoor events. The condominiums, one-third of which have already been reserved, will range in size from approximately 845 sf to 3,850 sf and in price from $570,000 to $3.9 million. There will be four units per floor save for the top floor, which will have just two units.