The For Sale sign put up in May, was recently taken down. LCC told the Laurelhurst Blog Staff that they don't have any additional information about status of the property. They contacted the broker who said they were "looking at the offers."
LCC Newsletter Article:
Talaris Land Use: Then Until Now...
Recently, the Laurelhurst Community Club, the City of Seattle, and 4000 Properties LLC, (the current owner of the Talaris site, the former Battelle Institute site), signed off on an agreement closing out a lawsuit about the property that had lingered without decision in King County Superior Court for almost four years. The dismissal agreement does not resolve any of the parties’ various claims and defenses. Instead it leaves them for future resolution, if necessary.
The Battelle site has been a focus of community concern for over three decades. Originally permitted as an “institute for advanced study” under the Seattle Zoning Code, by the mid-1980s its conference and event venue business had become a source of neighborhood complaints related to traffic and parking. Responding to Battelle plans for expansion, LCC through its land use counsel, Peter Eglick, brought the community’s concerns to a legal proceeding before the Seattle Hearing Examiner in 1988.
The outcome was a Hearing Examiner decision that called into question not only whether Battelle was entitled to expand, but also whether it could continue with some aspects of its existing operation. Battelle sued in King County Superior Court to overturn that decision. Ultimately, Battelle also entered into settlement negotiations with LCC and the City. The negotiations resulted in a 1991 “Settlement Agreement and Covenants Running With the Land.”
The Agreement, recorded in the King County land records, applies to the site regardless of any change in ownership. It includes provisions regulating expansion of the current uses and buildings, barring control by major institutions such as the University of Washington or Children’s Hospital, and prescribes a specific landscaping plan and parameters for the site.
Over the years since entry into the Settlement Agreement, LCC has monitored site activity and redevelopment plans and has occasionally been forced to take formal legal action. For example, a proposal two decades ago to convert and develop the site into a facility for Seattle Community Colleges, violating the Settlement Agreement, prompted a Club lawsuit.
The community college plan was dropped, followed by withdrawal of lawsuit. LCC has also worked with site owners and potential developers for the site. More recently, renewed owner moves toward site redevelopment resulted in another round of negotiations between LCC and the owner. These were largely unsuccessful.
At the same time, the owner asked the City Council to move on changes to the City’s single-family land use planning designation for the site. The Club opposed this change as unwarranted, and the City Council did not adopt it.
In 2013, as knowledge spread of an owner plan to divide the site into over 80 lots for development, some community members became concerned about how that might effect the site’s building and landscape design, notable examples of work by prominent Seattle architects.
A landmark nomination was submitted to the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board and by November 2013 the Battelle/Talaris’ exteriors of the existing buildings and site were designated as land marked status. A landmark designation is not an empty honor. Instead it can carry a significant regulatory punch through “controls and incentives” adopted by the Board after negotiations with the property owner.
Therefore, in response to the designation, the 4000 Properties LLC owner sued the City challenging the designation and attacking the actions and fairness of the Board and the Seattle Landmarks Ordinance itself. In response, and to protect the integrity of the landmark process, LCC successfully moved to intervene in the lawsuit in December 2013.
For three years, the lawsuit proceeded based on the position that the owner just needed a few more months to work out a possible sale or other deal concerning the property. LCC protested, pointing out that the owner had made the choice to file the lawsuit and could make the choice to withdraw it if it was interfering with plans for disposal of the site.
After almost three years had passed, the court finally said no to yet another extension, telling the owner either to proceed with the lawsuit or withdraw it. The owner dropped the lawsuit with the understanding that he may re-bring its claims later. At that time, the owner also entered into a “neighborly agreement” concerning mowing the site lawn.
For the first time in almost four years there is no pending litigation concerning the site. Meanwhile the Settlement Agreement and Covenants Running With the Land continue to apply.
One more piece of the continuing Talaris site puzzle is still outstanding. Over the same period of years starting with the 2013 landmark designation of the site to the present, the volunteer Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board has granted the owner extension after extension of the time frame for agreeing to “controls and incentives” implementing the landmark designation. Another such extension was granted in early July.
LCC continues to participate in this important city process. LCC also continues to monitor the situation as property “for sale” announcements come and go and proposed uses are floated.
The Laurelhurst Blog published this information in May:
The site, built in 1967, was originally owned by Battelle Memorial Institute. In 1997 Era Care Communities purchased the property for $6,125,000 and it was developed into Talaris Institute which focused on infant and early learning research of the brain. In 2000, Bruce Mc Caw under the name 4000 Property LLC of Bellevue, purchased the property for $15,630,000. The county has assessed the property at $14 million.
Pistol Creek Management, appears to manage the property and may be involved with ownership. Bruce McCaw is referenced as Chairman Emeritus of Pistol Creek and Co-Chair of Talaris. The owner of Talaris listed on the City's Public Records is Greg Vik, with 4000 Property LLC, also associated with Pistol Creek.
Seattle Mansions Blog said that Bruce McCaw "is involved in large scale commercial real estate investments with his Pistol Creek Financial Company."
The property was originally sold with an underlying Settlement Agreement in which Battelle Neighbors and the Laurelhurst Community Club are partnered together with the land owners of the parcel. The Settlement Agreement specifically states that major institutions can't operate within this property (no hospitals, colleges, etc). And the Settlement Agreement has specific restrictions attached which specifies the use of the property to protect the quality of life in the adjacent neighborhood.
Last year, 4000 Property LLC was exploring several options including a planned residential development with townhomes and houses, as well as development of the entire site into a private school campus, Academy for Precision Learning School.
The housing proposal, initially presented in January of 2015 included three options: 1) 37 houses with no removal of existing buildings 2) 63 housing units and remove existing Building G and 3) remove Building G and the lodge and add townhomes and 72 single-family homes.
The Laurelhurst Community Club, has been involved with the site for over 30 years, working to ensure the property is well integrated with the neighborhood by closely monitoring proposed development. LCC has also worked with current owners in lobbying for better property maintenance.
LCC's other priorities in partnering with the owners are maintaining open space, the eagle's habitat and valuable mature trees, supporting and enhancing property values and character of the entire Laurelhurst neighborhood and minimizing traffic impacts on all neighborhood streets and access points.
LCC issued this statement following the recent Seattle Times article about the property going on the market.
LCC's other priorities in partnering with the owners are maintaining open space, the eagle's habitat and valuable mature trees, supporting and enhancing property values and character of the entire Laurelhurst neighborhood and minimizing traffic impacts on all neighborhood streets and access points.
LCC issued this statement following the recent Seattle Times article about the property going on the market.
At Monday's LCC monthly Board Meeting the Talaris property was discussed.
The Seattle Times story that was published yesterday was filled with many inaccuracies.
The Laurelhurst Community Club has had a long standing role in the development of the property since it became a unique" island" in the single family zoned neighborhood when the Battelle Research Institute began in the 1960's.
The original architects including Bill Bain Senior, and later , Bill Bain Junior (Founded NBBJ), and Richard Haag (who built Gasworks Park) were visionaries for the site with overarching concept of providing a respite for the "think tank" scientists. The Battelle Research Institute was built with the purpose of an "Institute for Advanced Study", and the City of Seattle granted that special use permit for that purpose because it was a small institution located within a single family residential neighborhood.
Governed by a legally binding "Settlement Agreement" that runs with the land, both LCC and Battelle were "good neighbors" throughout their occupancy, and access to the site was openly casual, without barricades as the architects has designed to meet the needs of the scientists within, and the neighbors from the outside. The Battelle owners maintained the landscaping at the site and shared in the maintenance of the median strip outside their entrances, as per the mutual agreement.
When Battelle vacated the site, numerous proposals were offered, and many did not materialize due to their own financial constraints. LCC supported many of these new ideas and development plans.
Bruce McCaw and his immediate family bought the property in the early 2000's and the Talaris Institute was welcomed by LCC and neighbors-another good fit with mutual respect.
More recently, the Talaris Institute was dissolved, and the property was offered on the market for development for the past 4 years. . LCC has vetted a variety of uses, and only the 400 unit apartment complex was strongly opposed as it was not compatible with the underlying single family, nor Institute for Advanced Studies. That proposal would have completely destroyed the entire site, and LCC fought hard to prevent that development that was not context compatible.
The Seattle Landmark's Board then designated the exteriors of the buildings in late 2013. In addition, the relationship of the buildings to each other and the garden as "landmarked" are also landmarked. This limits the development to uses that retain the buildings and the site configuration.
Other proposals such as single family connected housing was proposed by the owner, as was a school for autistic children called Academy for Precision Learning. LCC worked through each one in a constructive manner, and had not rejected either concept.
The owner, Bruce McCaw, now wants to completely dispose of the property from his real estate holdings and hired a big real estate broker, CBRE to list the property for sale.
LCC has heard from some sources that the price is around $30 million.
Another entity called the Orion Center For Integrative Medicine, a clinical research center, which specializes in integrative medicine support for cancer patients , expressed interest in buying the property. Bonnie McGregor, the founder and executive director, who is located currently at Talaris, spoke at the Monday night LCC meeting with a positive reaction.
LCC maintains an open viewpoint and willingness to work with any, and all, proposals that respect the Landmarked status and underlying zoning, and the Settlement Agreement of the property, and provide the owner with compensation for his initial purchase, albeit the covenants were in place at that time which restrict development and its future value.
As mentioned in LCC's statement above, for decades, neighbors were free to stroll the grounds, until 2013, when Talaris suddenly put up "No Trespassing" signs and installed a four feet chain link fencing in 2013, as well putting up a main driveway barricade, fence on northwest side and a surveillance camera. Neighbors were no longer allowed to use the large grassy meadow area where generations of kids practiced soccer and the past few years the grounds facing NE 41st Street are often neglected and grass not consistently mowed.
A real estate agent told the Laurelhurst Blog Staff that, though there is residential development potential, in speaking with a few investors they feel the project is too complicated and are not interested.
Bonnie McGregor, mentioned previously, who operates the Orion Center for Integrated Medicine at the Talaris campus, commented in the Seattle Times article:
...the property "is frequented by wildlife ranging from coyotes to ducks. Bonnie often pulls into her parking spot and takes a minute to breathe in “the peace of this place” before starting work, she said. "There’s nothing else like it,” Bonnie said. “To lose it, to have it developed, I think would be a crime. It breaks my heart to think about that happening.”Here is an article from The Registry and also the Puget Sound Business Journal.
For more information about Talaris go here.
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