The Harvard Market QFC at Broadway and Pike
It took a year and a half but there is a buyer for Capitol Hill’s Harvard Market shopping center.
Multiple real estate industry sources are reporting that the two-level center and parking facility at Broadway and Pike has been acquired for $14.2 million by San Diego-based developer Tourmaline Capital.
The transaction has not yet been reported to the county.
Harvard Market had been listed for sale at $25 million.
The reported deal is a complicated one with the property set up as condominiums. The center is anchored by one of Broadway’s two QFC grocery stores. The grocer’s commercial suite was not part of the acquisition and remains owned by the Kroger-backed subsidiary.
CHS reported here in 2024 as the two-acre shopping center hit the market amid growing public safety concerns at the troubled corner as local investors including Northwest Commercial sought to exit the long-held development they called a “generational asset” in the sale listing.
Capitol Hill shopping centers have traded with some regularity over recent years. There has been a new wave of activity around the Melrose Market after the development’s 2019 purchase by Regency Centers for $15.5 million.
The same real estate investment trust acquired the Broadway Market shopping center for $43 million in 2015.
Harvard Market was built in the 1990s by Vancouver B.C.-based Milliken Development and includes both commercial and residential condominium units surrounding a massive surface and underground parking structure.
According to county records, the joint venture formed to develop the property sold off portions of the development for around $23.5 million over two years beginning in 1997.
That same year, the City of Seattle allowed the opening of a Burger King on the upper level of the development despite opposition from the community. Nineteen letters were sent into city planners about a change of use application required to allow the fast food restaurant — all of them in opposition to approval based on concerns around traffic, litter and smell. The city approved the change with conditions and Burger King moved in.
Almost 20 years later, the Harvard Market listing came in challenging times for the shopping center’s local ownership group that acquired the property in 2008 for $17 million.
County records show QFC has owned its chunk of Harvard Market for much longer with a $9 million transaction dating to 1997 listed in the paperwork.
With concerns about the grocery industry in Seattle and worries about public safety around the shopping center’s block, Tourmaline Capital is picking up a damaged asset.
CHS reported here on Seattle City Councilmember Joy Hollingsworth’s public safety plan for the area in the wake of a series of nearby deadly shootings last year. Last month, two men were charged in one of those shootings that left an 18-year-old dead on the sidewalk outside the shopping center’s Chipotle.
Tourmaline Capital bills itself as “a full-service real estate investment firm focused on the operation, repositioning, and redevelopment of retail and mixed-use properties in the Western US.”
Tuesday as the deal was being announced, a group of men in quarter zip sweaters gathered on the corner outside the QFC, talking, and taking notes.
“Since 2010, our team has been creating vibrant destinations that provide necessity-based retail, services, and dining,” the company says. The firm tends to target “necessity-based” retail, which can typically mean shopping centers anchored by grocery stores, medical services, or dining. Te sector is often seen as “recession-resistant.”
“Partnered with institutional capital, we oversee our shopping centers with a long-term vision that is optimized for the surrounding neighborhoods and communities,” Tourmaline Capital’s “about” page concludes.
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