#Smith tower rental windows

Capitalizing on the building’s age, we provided tenants robust TI packages to build out custom spaces that would be difficult to replicate in non-historic buildings. We introduced modern amenities to the historical setting by transforming the 22nd floor into a tenant roof deck and lounge and investing in common areas via the fitness room and on-demand workout studio showers and lockers bike garage and repair room. “Try to get your groceries from the sidewalk up to that space,” he said.Unico’s repositioning strategy for Smith Tower hinged on more thoughtfully levering the building’s location, historical value and architectural character to appeal to creative and tech tenants.

“Each view was like a snapshot in itself.” “Your views to the outside are pretty much determined by the architecture of the pyramidal tower,” said Castanes.

#Smith tower rental windows

The average asking price for downtown apartments of all sizes was $2,175 last year, according to CoStar.įrom inside the penthouse, windows offer glimpses of downtown, Mount Rainier and ferries gliding on Elliott Bay. Rents downtown fell about 13% last year as the pandemic emptied office buildings and shuttered restaurants and theaters.

Unico declined to disclose financial details of the previous lease.Īt $17,000, the apartment would rent for nearly eight times the downtown Seattle average. The space has since been renovated to a minimalist contemporary design “stripped back to the essence of Smith Tower,” said architect Jim Graham, who designed the new penthouse. The team cleared out equipment and interior walls, rerouted pipes and finished the apartment with doors, wood trim and marble repurposed from elsewhere in the tower, Castanes said. “All we saw was a bunch of pipes, mechanical stuff and the catwalks that went up.” Names and dates scrawled on the walls dated to the 1920s, he said. “It was just a mess up there,” Castanes said of the top floors of Smith Tower. The building features old-fashioned elevators that until a few years ago were operated by employees wearing suits modeled after those worn when the building opened in 1914.Īrchitect Jim Castanes, who designed the penthouse in the late 1990s, said it needed a dramatic transformation. Smith Tower includes 33 floors of office space and, as of 2016, a bar and viewing deck on the 35th floor. The penthouse is not open for public viewing and tours by would-be tenants require pre-qualification, according to Unico Properties, which owns the building along with Goldman Sachs affiliate Broad Street Principal Investments.įranklin moved out in 2019, according to Unico.

“The unique aspect and the iconic aspect of the property are what are driving the interested parties,” she said. Holley said she has received “several serious inquiries,” including families with children. The new lease would be for three to five years or longer, said listing agent Moira Holley. Venture capitalist Petra Franklin famously remodeled the space into a penthouse with a 20-year lease that has now ended. Take the staircase to reach the glass globe at the very top of the tower. A catwalk surrounds the living room, and triangular windows offer views of the city and Elliott Bay. Listed for the first time since it was converted to a living space in the late ’90s, the 2,128-square-foot, one-bedroom apartment spans two levels. For the right long-term commitment, a Seattle renter could snag a unique apartment that has never been on the market before: the pyramid-shaped penthouse atop Seattle’s historical Smith Tower.