$2M for Cadillac Hotel Acquisition, Redo

SEATTLE-The Seattle City Council recently signed off on about $2.2 million in federal funding to assist the Historic Seattle Public Development Authority in acquiring and restoring the Cadillac Hotel building at 325 Second Ave. in Pioneer Square. The building has been vacant since is was damaged during the 2001 Nisqually earthquake.The PDA will receive a loan of slightly more than $2 million and about $200,000 in federal grants, which it will pool and use to purchase the building from Goodman Financial Services. It was not immediately clear how the PDA plans to fund the subsequent restoration. Construction is set to begin in June.Once restored, the Cadillac Hotel building will house regional offices of the National Park Service, additional office space and the Klondike Gold Rush Museum. “This is a great investment in building a healthy community in Pioneer Square,” says Mayor Greg Nickels. “Restoring the Cadillac gets rid of an eyesore and replaces it with a newly renovated piece of Seattle history.” One of the most publicized images of the Nisqually earthquake was the fallen walls and brick strewn sidewalk of the Cadillac Hotel building. When the city ordered Goodman Financial Services to shore up the walls in August, the company argued that shoring up the building in order to open some streets would cost $300,000, and ultimately mean a complete fix of the building, which would cost $9 million and result in a building still worth only $3 million. Goodman’s preference was to raze the structure and build anew.