The expansive estate and event venue that serves as the Seattle headquarters for the Chateau Ste. Michelle winery has been listed for sale and potential redevelopment less than a year after one of the largest U.S. winemakers was sold to a private equity firm.
In an email confirming the listing, a spokesperson for the winery pointed to the ecological cost of shipping the product from growers to the suburban site at 14111 NE 145th St. in Woodinville and said consolidating operations closer to where its grapes are grown would save nearly 75,000 gallons of diesel per year.
Along with warehouse space and offices, the listing includes a concert venue, which has hosted Bonnie Raitt and Bob Dylan, as well a large tasting and banquet facility for the company, which calls itself the third-largest U.S. winemaker.
The venue and tasting room are tucked into a larger, mostly undeveloped site that has served as a pastoral vista for guests and customers. Nevertheless, a CBRE listing touts the suitability of the 118-acre site for redevelopment for uses including industrial, residential and even the burgeoning life sciences. No price has been disclosed.
A spokesperson for CBRE declined to comment on the listing or confirm its details.
It's been less than a year after the sale of the Chateau Ste. Michelle business itself. Its former parent company Altria, the Richmond, Virginia-based owner of tobacco giant Philip Morris, sold the winery to New York-based private equity firm Sycamore Partners in a July 2021 deal reported to be worth $1.2 billion.
The sale raises questions for the future of the site, which in addition to serving as a destination in its own right also heavily influenced development in the surrounding area, including the city of Woodinville, about 40 minutes north of Seattle.
Luring Wine Enthusiasts
Over the past two decades, Woodinville has built itself into a destination for wine enthusiasts, as smaller operators have clustered around the Ste. Michelle property along the Sammamish River.
The area hosts more than 130 wineries, according to its visitor center, including well-known names such as Columbia Winery, DeLille Cellars and Novelty Hill-Januik.
Few of those operations grow their grapes in Woodinville, though, instead importing product from the hotter, drier eastern part of the state to the Puget Sound where it can be fermented, bottled and served to visitors.
As Seattle’s fortunes have risen and the city has become a nexus for tech, life science and industrial development, developers in those fields have set their sites outside the city center to outlying areas such as Woodinville.
In May, Zillow declared Woodinville the most popular residential market in the nation. Other asset classes have also become more popular there, with both commercial and industrial sales notching increases of at least 50% in average per-square-foot price over the past two years, according to CoStar data.
Should the Ste. Michelle venue in Woodinville close, it would post a significant challenge for the area, withdrawing its single largest winery attraction and testing whether the market can maintain critical mass as a destination on its own.
A spokesperson for Chateau Ste. Michelle declined to comment as to whether the company or its parent would seek a buyer interested in preserving the site as either a winery, concert venue or event space.