If you haven’t yet bought your chunk of lower Pike/Pine you had better get some. On Thursday, CHS received several tips that the windows of the Auto Pro service garage at E Pine and Summit had been papered over. According to Auto Pro owner Ken Wright his lease had been bought out with the building’s October sale to new landowners. Involved in the deal are some familiar characters from Seattle real estate and entertainment.

“It’s closed for good. I enjoyed the business and I enjoyed the people,” Wright said. “I have a passion for cars.” He’ll continue to operate his Auto Pro garage in Renton. The E Pine Auto Pro served customers on Capitol Hill for 12 years after Wright took over the space from the Alpine Automotive business that had been operating in the garage.

It’s not clear exactly who now owns the building. County purchase records indicate the property was purchased by a corporation registered to lawyers Jerry Everard and Erickson Shirley. Everard, part of Capitol Hill firm Groff Murphy, has also been part of the businesses behind Pike/Pine entertainment venues Neumos and Sole Repair. We asked Everard for more information about the acquisition but he said he was only representing the owner and declined to comment. County records indicate the corporation paid $900,00 for the 3,200 square-foot ’50s-era garage. There are no records currently on file with the city for new construction at the property.

The garage neighbors the Capitol Club on E Pine and is across Summit from the nearly complete Terravita mixed-use development which is likely to bring at least two more restaurants to its stretch of E Pine. County records indicate the adjacent Capitol Club building remains in the hands of its long-time owner. Behind the garage rises this condo building.

Change on E Pine and E Pike below Broadway has seemingly accelerated. The Stanley Automotive building has been purchased by Hunters Capital and will be overhauled. The E Pike Mercedes dealership will leave and the building will likely be sold. The Marion Apartments have been demolished to make way for a mixed-use project. Re-development of the old BMW complex is underway. And, of course, the Bauhaus block is being planned as another big mixed-use development.

For Wright and the fading remnants of the automobile economy on Capitol Hill, the sale of the old Alpine garage has been a bittersweet development. “I guess I won’t be coming up there. I’m still kind of dealing with that,” Wright said, saying that he had been coming to the Capitol Hill garage a few times every week for the past decade. “It used to be dealerships and everything up there,” he said.