MidTown Center

Kidder Mathews was selected to broker the sale of MidTown Center, a 2.44 acre site located in Seattle’s Central District submarket. This project is a full city block development site situated on a prime north-south, east-west arterial. The existing buildings were constructed years ago and occupied by predominantly low-credit tenancy, requiring intensive property management and daily oversight. The MidTown Center development site is strategically located between the Seattle Central Business District, Lake Union, Capitol Hill, the Capitol Hill Light Rail Station, and the University District, a culturally rich community neighborhood. The Kidder Mathews team competed for this opportunity to list the assets for sale and was ultimately selected to showcase this unique opportunity to the international marketplace.

Approach

The MidTown Development site was assembled over 70 years by a tightly held family investment company. This family, our client, carefully fostered this asset with intentions to develop diverse businesses and ultimately upon sale, leave the community in a better position.

The primary challenges surrounding MidTown Center dealt with diverse community interests, a potential up zone with additional density, existing tenants that were strongly adverse to sale, and numerous lawsuits among one partner/family member trying to stop the sale. A homeless encampment on the site was to be relocated, and Seattle City Council’s attention was drawn to this development, with numerous news outlets writing about impact to the community after development. The area historically had a reputation for violence and drug use, and the ownership was held in low regard with their responses to often dangerous situations their tenants were in.

The Kidder Mathews team worked to overcome every single issue adverse to sale. The broad range of issues including the relocation of the homeless encampment, overseeing the demolition of an occupied building under heavy protest, defending ownership’s right to sell in court, and working with Seattle Police to keep the peace numerous times. We worked with an architect to maximize density while putting a partnership together with three developers to unlock the retail component of the site, and move the project forward before sourcing the perfect buyer for the site. Ultimately, the Kidder Mathews team created a partnership between a for-profit developer and a nonprofit developer with roots in this community. A portion of the property was identified for community interest in development while the remaining portion was identified for retail, low income, and market rate housing.

Throughout this process, a strong relationship was forged between the client and the KM team. A friendship that exists today, due in large part to the difficulty and joint stress endured throughout the process. Kidder Mathews yielded a sale value in excess of 20% higher than existed prior to being engaged.