Real estate brokers buy shuttered Hotel Seattle on Seneca Street

Marc Stiles | October 1, 2021

Multifamily brokers Giovanni Napoli and brothers Collin and Curran Hagstrom this week bought the 95-year-old Hotel Seattle for $10.85 million. They plan to renovate and modernize the 78-room boutique property at 315 Seneca St.

The trio had been on the hunt for old apartments when they came across Hotel Seattle, which has been closed since March 2020 when the pandemic crippled the Puget Sound region’s hotel industry. They said it was like stepping back in time when they did venture inside.

It sounded eery as well. In Bernard’s on Seneca, the basement restaurant with dark walls and carpeting, napkins had been left on the tables along with employee timecards behind the bar.

Despite having no experience in the hotel industry, “We are not scared of the project,” Curran Hagstrom said. The Hagstroms of Westlake Associates and Napoli of Institutional Property Advisors have over about the last decade bought and renovated 1920s-era apartment properties.

They’ve hired Seattle architecture firm Weinstein A+U to reimagine Hotel Seattle. The general contractor is to be determined. Columbia Hospitality will manage the 11-story property.

Before the investment opportunity arose this spring, the new owners would have said “absolutely not” to buying an old hotel, Napoli said. They came to see it as an opportunity to own property near the new $739 million waterfront and be part of downtown’s post-pandemic revitalization.

Brandon Lawler, Jerrid Anderson and Dylan Simon of Kidder Mathews represented the seller, the Neyhart family, which had owned the property for 43 years.

The brokers said they broadly marketed the hotel unpriced and received over 15 offers. “The hotel was completely vacant, marketed in the depth of the Covid-19 market and still achieved pricing that well exceeded both assessed value and appraised value,” a Kidder Mathews press release said.

The appraised value is just over $9.1 million, according to the King County Department of Assessments.

Source: Puget Sound Business Journal