It breaks my heart to think that I could have boarded the monorail at that Denny's (it's 15th and Market, right?). Cest la vie or whatever.

Holy hell!

=======================
Total Assessed Value (2006)
$685,000

Date Purchased by SMP
3/25/2005

Price Paid by SMP
$2,108,000
=======================

This repeats over and over. Why did they pay so much for this land?

That site has been up for at least 2 months, girl.

bubble, bubble, bubble.

*pop*

I wonder if the price paid doesn't also include the costs of relocation, etc. I'd caution not to make too many assumptions just from those numbers. I know some property sales only happened after a mediator got involved.

And while I'm not saying it would be worth it to double the price paid on property, a small increase over assessed value would be justified if it saved on months of litigation costs.

The Monorail didn't go under because of property costs, and it probably never would have run into big problems from right of way issues. You may remember that a lot of people predicted so many lawsuits over property that it would cripple the project, but at the time of its demise, they owned most of the property (minus a couple pieces), with minimal litigation. of course, what does it matter, since the damn thing went down the toilet anyway.

For those of you interested, the right of way policy is posted at http://www.elevated.org/_downloads/Meetings/Resolution03-33Xhibit_A_ACQUISITION_AND_RELOCATION_PROCED.pdf.

So why do you guys blame the mayor...looks like SMP was perfectly skilled at imploding. I am glad he stopped them.

Stupidest board areound, and included a few BIG Friends of the Stranger.

Licata style people. Cleve.

They had no idea how to do a real budget - utterly amazing.

By the way assed value has no real bearing in a boom market, it could be years old. The value of any real property is what a real buyer is willing to pay in real cash.

Otherwise it is guessing - educated or from the blue sky, seat of trousers, etc.

Oh boy, Cleve's an ass and a moron, and nobody on staff, or the board, liked him. proof that the voters don't always know best.

U Smith, you're totally right. In a case where the buyer prompts the sale, and has to buy, it's bound to be a skewed negotiation. Unless you want the public agencies going out and raping the property owners (and I certainly don't), those relo costs are going to add quite a bit to what you pay for the property.

I'm just sad that Video Vault is gone... they were a great video store and I will miss them. *sniff*

Am I the only one who is bothered by the whole eminant domain thing? Why is it okey for the government to "make an offer you can't refuse" and then turn around and sell the property at a profit? Give the people moved out the option to buy it back at the same price.

Um, the government isn't selling "at a profit", they're taking a huge bath. The people "moved out" have the opportunity right now to buy it back at a third of what they paid.

The assessed value went down dramatically the minute the most interested buyer, the monorail authority, dropped out. A huge part of the value of these places was tied to their prominence on a future monorail line, which now doesn't exist. That Denny's is frankly not all that prime; the action in Ballard is way down the street.

I supported the monorail but I'm not sorry to see one of my favorite Seattle buildings get a reprieve -- the Earthwise building, one of Seattle's few remaining original wooden warehouses. I know the building's falling apart, but I hope it can be saved; it's a gem and a historical landmark. It should be protected.
In a smart city it would have incalculable renovation value; look what they've done with some similar but lesser buildings like the ones around Herban Pottery. The assessed value is $368K; that should be easily financeable at far less than the $4K a month in rent Earthwise is paying. I wish they'd buy it; they have a stake in keeping it alive.