When it comes to real estate, as with most things, change seems to be the only constant.
Pavilion and Surrounding Businesses
This week’s nearly $15 million listing of 3.27 acres of four combined parcels at the southwest corner of Madison Avenue and Wyatt Way is meant to bring change, but its sellers say they hope the change will not alter much of the face of business there. You know the face: twenty-year-old Four Swallows restaurant, Mike’s Car Wash & Detail, and, last but not the least bit least, the Pavilion, home to Bainbridge Cinemas, numerous restaurants and businesses, and a parking lot, all arguably vital to downtown.
What’s it all about, Alfie? Alfie couldn’t tell me, so I spoke with Eric Fredricks, Managing Partner of Sohn Real Estate Group, Inc. Two of the owners of the property, Fredricks and his wife Kinam Sohn, 2014 President-Elect of the Kitsap County Association of Realtors (KCAR), are handling its sale. After joking that Bainbridge Cinemas would be replaced by basketball courts and Chippendale dancers, Fredricks got serious.
He said the property is at its maximum capacity for commercial use but that opportunity exists to make it mixed use and add housing in its undeveloped areas. ”In Winslow we’re creating an urban village with retail and residential together, like at Winslow Green with the apartments above,” said Fredricks. “The sum of the story is that the four parcels combined have more potential for development.”
Fredricks continued, “It’s too late to put a third or fourth story for housing on the Pavilion, but, for example, we could put a 3- or 4-story apartment complex on the same site as The Four Swallows.”
“Everything north of the Pavilion could be wiped away, but we would make an argument to the investors to keep the existing businesses. . . . There is no plan to eliminate leases because we think the tenants are 90 percent of the value, and 10 percent is the potential for added residential,” he said.
Fredricks told me The Four Swallows is his favorite restaurant and he has no desire to see it go. “Our idea is that the house could be renovated with a new foundation and improvements so it will last another 100 years. . . . We could move it or lift it up and turn it around.”
Although once sold the property’s use would be up to the new owner, Fredricks said he thinks anyone who would spend $14 or $15 million would be smart enough to see the value of maintaining the commercial status quo and that he would make a strong case for such an approach.
He sees the new housing being designated as “affordable,” with a plan “like the Grow Avenue development that encourages walking and use of Zipcar and public transit.” He explained that once you add cars to the situation the price goes way up.
Nevertheless, Fredricks sees an underground parking garage going in. And that means more traffic.
“We feel as investors we have gone as far as we can go,” he concluded. “It’s a solid investment with great long-term tenants. We think this is the next chapter for the property.”
Best Western
Bainbridge Best Western courtyard
The Best Western on High School Road went up for sale in February, 2014, with a listing price of $6.6 million. I spoke briefly with the selling agent, Ross Candoo of Seattle’s Candoo Associates, Inc., about the sale and its ramifications.
Candoo said, “It should continue as a Best Western operation. The market is doing well, and the property is doing excellently. It’s a unique boutique property with a national flag.”
Candoo explained that the Bellevue-based investors who built the hotel and adjoining condo always intended to sell the property once it was established. He said that after weathering the 2008-2010 economy, they began to look seriously at selling.
“We have interested parties looking at it. It will be a buyer who recognizes its special status in the community,” said Candoo.
When I asked what the sale might mean for the hotel’s current award-winning general manager, Linda Thurrott, Candoo said, “Linda is top notch. It would be crazy to imagine a new owner finding anyone as good.”
Related Stories
- Sale of Best Western Puts over $23 Million of Prime Bainbridge Real Estate on the Market
- Bainbridge Pavilion and Adjacent Properties at Madison & Wyatt up for Sale
- Photos of the Day: It Doesn’t Get Any Lonelier Than This
- Priciest House Ever on Bainbridge Just Listed at $12.8M
- The Five Most Expensive Homes Sold on Bainbridge in 2012
Photos courtesy of Commercial Brokers Association.
