Prime for ‘high-rise zoning,’ former First Hill home of Museum of Museums hits market

The First Hill property home to the shuttered Museum of Museums is for sale.

The Seattle DJC reports that the block of the Swedish First Hill campus at 1401 Madison is being dangled for developers.

“CBRE recently put the block on the market, unpriced. Because it’s part of the Swedish MIO campus area (think: major institutional overlay), it has high-rise zoning,” the DJC reports. “So an apartment or condo tower could in theory be built up to 200 feet.”

The half acre of land and old medical buildings are being listed as construction is completed on a new “north tower” at Swedish.

The Hughes Tower will include a 31-room emergency department, 24 operating suites, and 72 acuity-adaptable ICU beds. A second new tower project on the Swedish First Hill campus remains on hold.

The 1401 medical building property was home to the Museum of Museums until its closure in 2023 as its building faced costly sewer and infrastructure repairs.

Growth of First Hill’s medical core includes plans for a $1.74 billion modernization and multi-story inpatient medical tower addition to the county’s Harborview Medical Center. “Construction is expected to begin in 2027 or 2028, with phased work planned to keep the hospital fully operational every step of the way,” according to Mortenson, the lead construction firm on the project.

Meanwhile, should the 1401 Madison property find a taker with high-rise ambitions, their next challenge will be sorting out how to transition the tower zoning out of Swedish’s major institutional overlay.

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