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Private School Leases South Lake Union Building

SEATTLE-Thanks to a discounted rent from owner Yuen Lui, Spruce Street School not only is able to remain in the neighborhood but also gets a dramatic facility upgrade.

By Brian K. Miller | Updated on January 24, 2005

SEATTLE-Spruce Street School will be staying in the South Lake Union neighborhood thanks to Yuen Lui, owner of the locally based West Coast portrait studio chain Yuen Lui Studios. Lui has leased the urban private grade school a recently renovated 19,000-sf building at 914 Virginia St. at a rate that is reportedly significantly below market.The school is now located at 411 Yale St., which is owned by Paul Allen’s Vulcan Inc. and slated to be redeveloped. “We had a school budget we were working within [for the relocation]. We were looking to stay in the neighborhood but all the properties that met the [financial] criteria were suburban,” says the school’s broker, Paul Carr of CB Richard Ellis. “It would not have happened without Mr. Lui.”Indeed, in addition to providing a discounted lease rate Carr says Lui also let Spruce Street School sign a 25-year lease that includes an option for an additional five years. “Lui was the only one who would do a long-term lease,” Carr tells GlobeSt.com. “Everyone else was like ‘five years, maybe 10 if you want to pay for it’ because they know where this neighborhood is going.”The 914 Virginia building is a 1930′s brick structure on which Lui has spent $2 million on upgrades, including a complete seismic retrofit, new elevator and new HVAC. Carr says that depending on how the school’s capital campaign goes, it will either occupy the whole building or sublease the ground floor. Carr says he is not exactly sure why Lui was so generous, but he did say that the director of Spruce Street used to teach Yuen Lui in grade school. Carr declined to reveal how far below market the school’s lease rate is. Market rate for such a building would be about $16 per sf per year, triple net, according to local brokers.

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