Seattle landmark auctioned off at a discount
Jul 9, 2024, 6:29 PM
Seattle Coliseum Theater. (Getty Images)
(Getty Images)
The Coliseum Theater in downtown Seattle was recently sold at a substantial discount during an online auction in late May, according to county records as reported by the Puget Sound Business Journal.
The building, located at Fifth Avenue and Pike Street, changed hands for $8.9 million, significantly below its 2007 sales price of $13 million.
The buyer, Promethia Holdings, has not commented on the purchase. The 16,200-square-foot building is fully occupied, with tenants including Monorail Espresso and Actualize AiR.
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According to KIRO Newsradio and MyNorthwest resident historian Feliks Banel in a 2017 post:
The Coliseum Theatre opened in 1916 and was one of Seattle’s grandest theaters, and one of the first to be built exclusively for motion pictures (that is, not also for live performance). It was converted to a Banana Republic in 1994 and remains a breathtaking specimen of theatre architecture, and a testament to its famous architect B. Marcus Priteca.
The Coliseum Theater was designated a landmark by the City of Seattle in 1978 due to its innovative design, which notably lacked a stage.
According to Paul Dorpat in a special article in the Seattle Times published in 2008, “Priteca concocted… a neoclassical temple of such flash that the facets of its glazed white terra cotta facade were designed with the help of sciography: the study of sun angles. At night, inset electric bulbs threw their own shadows.”
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After closing in 1990, the theater underwent a remodel in 1994, and Banana Republic operated a store there for 26 years before closing during the pandemic.
This sale follows the recent sale of Pacific Place, downtown’s largest retail property, which also saw a significant decline in value compared to a decade ago.
Bill Kaczaraba is a content editor at MyNorthwest. You can read his stories here. Follow Bill on X, formerly known as Twitter, here and email him here.
