Seattle University buys former hospital laundry facility

Seattle University has paid a hefty $9.2 million sum for the former hospital laundry facility

Former hospital laundry facility at 1300 E. Columbia St.

Former hospital laundry facility at 1300 E. Columbia St.

at 13th and Columbia, reports the Puget Sound Business Journal. When we reported it was for sale back in July, we noted it sat in Seattle U’s overlay and that the school might be interested in the purchase.

The PSBJ has more details:

The 1.4 acres, where a commercial laundry operated for many years, is one of the last big development sites left near downtown Seattle. Current zoning would allow construction of a five-story residential project.

Seattle University, whose 7,500-student campus is just west and south of the property, is growing. According to the university’s 20-year master plan, new facilities need to be added to accommodate an expected 36 percent increase in the school’s student population.

The university has no specific plans for the property on Columbia, Associate Vice President of Facilities Robert P. Schwartz said Monday. “We are reviewing our options, which will take some time.”

The building was long occupied by the Hospital Central Services Administration (HCSA), which serves Swedish, Virginia Mason, Overlake Medical Center, Providence Health & Services and Seattle Children’s. They shuttered the laundry facility that had operated at 1300 E. Columbia St. since 1966.

 

15 thoughts on “Seattle University buys former hospital laundry facility

  1. Horrible horrible news. The neighborhood waged a big battle against this. SU has been very bad for our community and continues to encroach on it while giving nothing for the gain. A travesty that the zoning height was changed for this institution when sites closer/already on campus could have been chosen. Hello more drunken students. Goodbye family neighborhood.

      • The school is ranked quite highly. If being a student at a competitive school receiving a stellar education while taught by PhD’s instead of TAs in small classes rather than classes of three and four hundred makes you a nerd, please someone offer my kids a scholarship to nerd-dom.

    • SU has been in the neighborhood since 1891. Hardly a new neighbor ruining a family neighborhood. In fact, until just a few years ago it was a get robbed at the gas station neighborhood. SU has helped, with all of its new construction, to bring the neighborhood, and your property values, out of its crime ridden crackhouse era.

  2. This is very good news. SU is a great member of the CD. They bring vitality, opportunity, and youth to the decrepit old CD. That hideous outdated facility can become something new with mainly positive impact on the nature of our comunity.

    The drunken college students will make excellent marks for our local population of gansters, but, geneally will be good citizens helping us lift up the CD.

    • Why do you consider this building hideous? It is a nice mission-style building which, while commercial, was built with enough style to fit in with the neighborhood. I wish all modern developers would take a lesson from that.

      • Gobs of cement, tacking catholic missionary prisonlike façade. Most of us are not catholic and we don’t like the imprisonment architecture.

      • Speak for yourself, buddy. I’m not Catholic either, but I’m typing this from Rome, where I’m enjoying the hell out of centuries of Catholic architecture. Your comments are… well, I’m just embarrassed for you.

      • yeah seriously… I’m not Catholic or Muslim (or a follower of any religion for that matter), but I can certainly recognize the grandeur, elegance and craftsmanship of a beautiful cathedral or mosque…. while that building may not quite be one of those, it’s certainly not hideous…

      • The ancient Roman stuff is pre-Christian. As for the cathedrals they are quite ornate and well done, but, still a bit tacky if you ask me. I prefer the classic lines of a simpler period over the grandiose grotesquery as evidenced in places such as the sistine chapel. Granted – very impressive, but, not a bit over the top in terms of livability and sensibility. It like Vegas for God.

      • Look again. Whaever people think of that building it has no historic designation so will be replaced with a new 5 story NC probably.

      • Ah — I stand corrected and that is great news. Wrong address above for the landmark or property search functions..