A local hotel operator has paid top dollar for a parking lot next to one of its downtown Seattle locations as interest from hospitality developers in the city’s stadium district is on the rise.
Bellevue-based Silver Cloud Inns & Hotels paid $13.5 million for a pair of parcels totaling 18,000 square feet, including 1030 First Ave. S, a parking lot site adjacent to a 211-key Silver Cloud Hotel Seattle Stadium it operates at 1046 First Ave. The sale closed Wednesday, according to broker Marcus & Millichap. The brokerage did not disclose the seller's identity, but sales documents identified the seller as the RJK Apple Family Partnership.
The deal comes as interest from hotel companies in particular has picked up in the area surrounding Seattle’s two major stadiums, Lumen Field, home of the NFL's Seattle Seahawks, and T-Mobile Park, home of Major League Baseball's Seattle Mariners. Stren Lea, the Marcus & Millichap broker representing the seller, said the site had multiple offers from hotel developers, an uptick compared to previous activity.
Seattle this year experienced its strongest summer for tourism since the start of the pandemic, with August visitor counts downtown hitting 3 million, on par with pre-pandemic levels, and hotel stays hitting 370,000 room nights, 91% of their level their 2019 level, according to the Downtown Seattle Association.
The price Silver Cloud paid works out to $750 per square foot. While zoning differences can significantly affect city land values, the price Silver Cloud paid lands significantly above previous nearby sales. Sales of developable commercial land within a mile of the site have averaged just over $500 per square foot over the last three years, according to CoStar.
Silver Cloud Hotels founder Jim Weymouth said in a call with CoStar News that the company would leave the site a parking lot for the time being and acknowledged the acquisition was at least partly defensive.
“One of our sources of parking shut us off from parking, so we needed additional parking, and we wanted to control it ourselves,” Weymouth said. “It helps us certainly, nobody can buy that property and build on it.”
Weymouth added that the hotel might expand onto the lot, but said the company had no firm plans to build in the immediate future.
In the long run, Lea noted, the move positions Silver Cloud to keep a dominant position in the stadium district market. Lumen Field is directly across the street, and the Silver Cloud Hotel Seattle Stadium is the closest hotel to the venue.