April 10, 2003

Real Estate Buzz: Martin Smith touched people of many walks

One measure of a person is how they treat us little folk.

Judy Moulton says that in the 15 years that she has worked for parking mogul and lawyer Joe Diamond, she has dealt with a steady stream of powerful people through the office.

None treated her finer than H. Martin Smith Jr., who died April 5 after an injury from a fall at the age of 79.

"He was the dearest," Moulton said. "Besides the holiday card he'd send to Joe, he and his wife would always send one to me, too. The world would be a better place with more people like him."

Smith

Smith founded the Seattle property management firm of Martin Smith Inc. in 1974 and built it into the area's largest office property managers.

Two of his four children moved up to running the company starting in the early 1990s so Smith could ease into retirement. Mickey and Greg Smith and third partner Jeff Roush turned the company into one of downtown's most-active office development and investment firms. Recently Greg Smith branched out to form his own development firm.

Martin Smith's start in real estate came in 1947 under the tutelage of the late Henry Broderick, himself a Seattle commercial real estate legend. By the time Broderick's company sold to Coldwell Banker in 1970, Smith had risen to be one of its principals.

"There was nothing false about him," said Jerry Costacos, a business partner and friend of Smith's going back to delivering newspapers together during high school in West Seattle.

"My dad never changed one bit," said his daughter, Sally Struzyna. "Whether he had no money or money, he was always the same. What you saw was what you got. That was really neat. I loved that about him. He just never wavered."

Diamond, 96, said he's "upset and miserable knowing such an outstanding and wonderful person is gone."

Smith's great grandfather, Leonard Smith, served as a Seattle mayor in the 1880s. Smith was a U.S. Marine lieutenant colonel during the Korean War. In the 1970s he owned an interest in the historic Smith Tower in Pioneer Square with his famous cousin, the late restaurateur Ivar Haglund.

Smith also restored a Pioneer Square building that had housed Broderick's company and named it the Broderick Building.

"I never heard my dad say anything about anybody unless that person had been dishonest and not lived up to their word," Struzyna said. "If he did have something to say, he said it to them."

Smith is survived by his wife of more than 50 years, Beverly, their daughter Sally, sons Greg, Bryan and H. Martin "Mickey" Smith III, and eight grandchildren.

The family is holding a private service this week and plans to schedule a public service in the coming weeks. Remembrances can go to Seattle Goodwill, where Smith served for a long time as a board member.

A pink triangular affair, including 11 ghosts

True Buzz readers -- "Buzzards," if a nickname should be needed -- recall that Marc Stiles created this column when he covered real estate for the DJC. Now he's the environmental editor here, and provides the following dispatch:

The Buzz about the future of the Timberline swirled through the longtime gay nightclub during its wildly popular Sunday tea dance: The club is moving from one Denny Triangle location to another.

Forced to make way for Cornish College of the Arts' new Skinner Theater, the future of the Timberline has been the source of some speculation. Our reliable source says it's moving from 2015 Boren Ave. N. to the old doggy day-care, Dogvana, at 1828 Yale Ave.

Those who can say for sure aren't telling stories. "We're not releasing the location ... for another two weeks because we are in the midst of negotiations and we don't want to screw up," said Jeff Blackford, who owns the Timberline with his partner, Jim Jensen.

The owner of the former Dogvana building is Kent Central LLC, controlled by the Benaroya Co.

The stately-but-worn lodge has housed the nightclub since 1987. Its history as a club dates back to the early 1970s. Blackford said it operated as the City Beat Disco and the Boren Street Disco.

If only the walls could talk. And they can, sort of. According to Blackford, 11 ghosts inhabit the joint.

It's why the official name is Timberline Spirits.

The fun on Boren ends May 26, Blackford said, when the club will close.

Then, if the well-sourced rumors do come true, it's off to the foot of Capitol Hill.

Bellevue pays Boeing $3.5M for park site

Photo by Joe Nabbefeld

The City of Bellevue paid $3.5 million this week to finish buying 14.5 acres in the Eastgate area from Boeing that will become a park, King County property records show.

The price comes to $5.50 per square foot of land.

The property at 2800 160th Ave. is half of 28 acres there that Boeing put up for sale at the tail end of the boom nearly three years ago.

The 28 acres are part of Boeing's 94-acre Bellevue Business Park on the north side of Interstate 90. Boeing occupies 11 office buildings on the remaining 66 acres, which it is keeping.

After putting the acreage up for sale, Boeing received a rezoning of the non-park land, up from industrial to office use.

A King County landfill occupied part of the 28 acres until the landfill was capped in 1964.

Fred Meyer ends two Seattle synthetic leases

Fred Meyer Inc. bought out synthetic leases last week on two Seattle stores, both from Wilmington Trust Co.

County property records show the Portland-based retailer bought out one for $25.4 million for the Ballard Fred Meyer at 845 43rd St., and one for $11.6 million for a property in North Seattle at 14300 First Ave.

A Fred Meyer spokesman said both deals were to end synthetic leases and involved no changes at the properties.

Synthetic leases are a way to keep property ownership off of a company's books. In the simplest form, the company sets up a separate owner of the property and then leases from that owner. But in the aftermath of the Enron and Arthur Anderson accounting scandals involving off-balance-sheet activity, companies are being pressured to undo synthetic leases.

Rates heated up housing in March

A drop in home mortgage interest rates in early March sparked a surge of home buyers, says J. Lennox Scott, head of John L. Scott real estate. Then in late March, an uptick in rates did the same thing.

"When rates popped up again later in the month, there was another surge of buyers who wanted to take advantage before they rose too high," Scott said.

This resulted in another big month in housing in the Puget Sound region in March, according to the latest monthly figures compiled by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service, which came out late last week.

Pending sales of single-family homes and condos in the four counties of King, Snohomish, Pierce and Kitsap totaled 6,889 in March, the service said.

That's up 28 percent from the previous March's total of 5,544 and higher than the March 2000 and 2001 totals too, of 5,903 and 5,722, respectively.

March is typically the start of the hottest few months of the year in house buying.

The median price of single-family homes (excluding condos) that sold in King County in March was $284,000, the service said. That's up from the mid-$270,000s for each of the past few months and close to the highest monthly median of the past few years: $288,000 for January 2002.

The $284,000 median is up 4.8 percent from the previous March's median price.

Previous columns:

• Real Estate Buzz: Alexandria leaves them guessing on1616 Eastlake, 04-03-2003
• Real Estate Buzz: Empty $20M office building sells for $5M, 03-27-2003
• Real Estate Buzz: Barker replaces Cyburt at Boeing Realty, 03-20-2003
• Real Estate Buzz: Florist roots itself in South Lake Union, 03-13-2003
• Real Estate Buzz: Bird? Plane? No, it's Tom Bernard's balloon, 02-27-2003
• Real Estate Buzz: More Salt Lake bankruptcies for Horbach, 02-20-2003
• Real Estate Buzz: After 10 years at sea, here's a real challenge, 02-13-2003
• Real Estate Buzz: WaMu-SAM tower up for a MUP, 02-06-2003