South King County development site sells after decade on market

Puget Sound Business Journal | August 5, 2024

FEDERAL WAY – An undeveloped 20.6-acre property located along a busy stretch of Pacific Highway South in Federal Way sold in late July for $9.5 million after a decade on the market.

Seller Kitts Corner Development LLC, an investment group led by managing member Gary Hunter, first put the property up for sale in 2014 for $12.3 million with Listing Broker, Richard Borsini.

But the asking price proved to be too high, said Hunter, a partner at Seattle-based brokerage Westlake Associates.

The site had drawbacks such as zoning that required any multifamily projects to have a retail component, Hunter said. The projects would also face per-unit impact fees.

The impact fees have since been repealed, he said.

Hunter’s involvement with the property goes back three years.

“I was brought on in 2021 to reposition the property and was named managing member,” he said. “We brought the price down to $8.5 million in 2022, which resulted in multiple offers. Ultimately it sold for a million more than we were asking.”

The buyer is Christian Faith, a Federal Way megachurch whose existing 230,000-square-foot building at 33645 20th Ave. S. is being displaced by Sound Transit, which plans to construct an operations and maintenance facility on the 24.5-acre site.

Christian Faith intends rebuild its church on a portion of its newly acquired property and eventually develop the rest, Hunter said.

The new Sound Transit facility is expected to be a key structure in the agency’s southward light rail expansion, according to its website. The facility will open sometime between 2032 and 2037.

Permit requests for Christian Faith’s new church have not yet been submitted to the city of Federal Way.

Drew Frame, Will Frame and Mark Clirehugh of Kidder Mathews represented Christian Faith Center in the transaction.

Source: Puget Sound Business Journal