The Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board agreed. The old, boarded-up auto row-era Capitol Hill building at the corner of E Olive Way and Denny is not a landmark.
The board voted seven to one Wednesday on a motion to deny the nomination of the property. CHS reported here on the nomination of the 1924-built Olive Way Improvement Company building, a formality in the process to redevelop the nearly 100-year-old complex that first rose as the street was being touted as an exciting new alternative connecting Capitol Hill to early 20th century downtown Seattle.
Wednesday’s vote will help clear the way for Guntower Capital, a holding company formed by executives at two Seattle-area real estate and development firms, to begin its plans. Past attempts to ask the company’s owners about its vision for the property have not been responded to.
CHS broke the news in January that Guntower was in agreement to purchase the half acre or so property once home to a mix of businesses including the former In the Bowl, the departed Bus Stop bar and Coffee Messiah cafe and a sprawling dog lounge charred in a 2017 fire.
The property has been subject to complaints and violation notices from the city over squatters and unsafe conditions but has been reportedly better secured since the deal with the developer.
Formed in 2017, Guntower Capital has recently been pursuing a 102-unit mixed-use development in downtown Bellevue and developing a 24-story, 237-unit apartment building in the University District. Executives include Charlie Bauman, a principal former partner at barrientos RYAN, “a unique urban real estate development firm focused on making places” that has been active in Capitol Hill development.
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Let’s goooo!! Population density & mixed use is how we get out of this funk with homeless encampments and security issues.
Increase # of people, # of businesses; and it will organically heal itself.
Just keep removing unlawful encampments, goal should be 0.
I agree. Bring the population on! Bigger Seattle population means bigger political power, along with more bars and restaurants. Bring it on!
I hope the eyesore gets demolished and something suitable goes in its place soon.
Also: Who would name a holding company ‘Guntower Capital’ unless you wanted people to think it sounded ominous or worse? Like Blackrock Capital. Such names are indicators of end stage capitalism.
Look at me I know buzzwords
Oof Those other projects this company is undertaking be U.G.L.Y.
Hopefully this one will be less glass/steel/barcodes. More Hill please!
Please…tear it down!!!! It’s an absolute eyesore!
Would love to see some transparency on what is being planned, but good to see this pass the landmark hurdle. The unique features of this building can and should be reused, here or elsewhere, but the building itself is pretty unremarkable.
A 100 year old building with rare terracotta beaux arts style urns and everyone wants to tear it down. Bunch of philistines here. This could be an exemplary example of facade preservation at an historically significant intersection with historic buildings all around. And you could still build a 7 story apartment building there.
Totally agree. Letting it rot so it doesn’t get landmark protection appears to have been an effective strategy in swaying public opinion in the developers favor.
That’s a great idea, you should buy up the building and do that.
Or the tax paying people, like all of us, could have a say in keeping and preserving while also doing density. Why not win/win?
Why should anyone get a say. Do you get a say that people can’t drive ugly cars or wear ugly clothes? What if someone has a haircut you don’t like? People need to stop this entitlement.
Wow, your comments contribute ANYTHING here. Please stop LSRes. It’s obnoxious. JKM is spot on. The city should be working to find suitable redevelopers for heritage sites, in concert with the owners.
Also, a land use/land value tax should have been instituted here years ago to keep this let-it-burn-and-rot-until-no-one-sees-value-in-it-and-I-can-just-tear-it-down charade shite from happening.
Anyone who grew up in the US’ Northeast knows this crooked game. Are our city council and office of Planning and ‘Community Development’ (ha!) seriously THAT incompetent? (seems so)
This is exactly the type of property that should have been forced to sell long ago (by escalating taxation for failure to keep the property up to its potential) to a better owner or redeveloper who would adapt the best parts of what exists into anything new, or put a fire under the owners to fix it up.
That so many here rejoice that our ‘hood got screwed by incompetence and will likely see another ugly, new sterile underbid is a bit baffling. Let’s see if they build something unique and gorgeous, or actually affordable or quite tall and accommodating of lots of new units. Anyone want to take that bet? Seems doubtful on all accounts.
Want sound redevelopment that respects heritage, architecture, our environment and affordability? Let’s turn this new public developer we just green-lighted into a people-owned juggernaut of just that.
This fake, big C Capitalism (Gunpowder ManBoy LLC!) is failure after failure and too many suckers still lap it up. SMH.
Lol person that’s opinion is held by 1% of population tells someone to be quiet because they aren’t be helpful.
You guys will never be taken seriously, you’ll never accomplish anything, so maybe it’s you who should be quiet.
Do you know how much it costs to preserve facades? A crap ton. It’s ok to let things go so people can have housing.
A false dichotomy and the type of attitude that prevents Seattle from reaching its potential.
Ahhh, you think the buyer/new developer will be building affordable housing, Julie? We’ll see. Don’t hold your breath though. The wealthy who will likely occupy these new, likely over-priced units will almost-certainly make the builders plenty off of their new building. They can afford to preserve a small piece of it.
You may be well-intentioned but defense of the Donald Trump set isn’t a great look, nor does it likely match with what seems your desired outcomes. This will NOT be anything approaching affordable housing for the poor, homeless or truly moderate income folks. And it will wipe away yet another trace of anything historic about Capitol Hill and its past and disappearing present.
“There’s no affordable housing” is the left NIMBY-ism.
It’s a way they can team up with the far right to continue our housing crisis.
Those urns are not rare. Way overdue to bulldoze this dump and revive that corner.
A good day for Guntower Capital and their shareholders. Everyone else, get back to work.