HAL Acquires Columbia Plaza for Redevelopment

SEATTLE-The premier redevelopment site in Columbia City has been scooped up by locally based HAL Real Estate Investments. The 1.7-acre parcel fronts Rainier Avenue South and also abuts Columbia Park, Columbia City Library and Edmonds Street, the designated pedestrian connection to the new light rail station two blocks away on Martin Luther King Way.

Originally developed as a Tradewell Market in 1957, the site holds an 18,000-sf building that has been master leased and operated as a sort of bazaar. “There are a lot of people inside selling things,” HAL president Dana Behar tells GlobeSt.com. The local farmer’s market operates in the parking lot.

The lease for the building runs into February 2008. Behar says it will take a couple of years before the site is entitled for the residential-over-retail building he is planning for the site. Until then, he plans to let the farmer’s market use the property rent free.