Small Price, Big Plans: Artists Pay $20 to Save Seattle Building

The dilapidated El Rey in Belltown was days away from the wrecking ball when its next-door neighbor hatched a plan to buy the building for a symbolic price of $20.

Arts collective Common Area Maintenance acquired the property in a gift transfer from Sound, a behavioral health provider that operated the building as a treatment facility before being forced to move out in 2020 due to long-running maintenance concerns.

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