Storm's headquarters move to help Interbay redevelopment plans

The Seattle Storm's impending move to Interbay is another step in a decade-old effort to revive the long-neglected Seattle neighborhood, the WNBA team's new landlord says.

Storm officials announced Thursday they will move their headquarters next month to 12,000 square feet in Freehold Group's Interbay Building, a onetime ice-cream-equipment factory on Thorndyke Avenue West.

Seattle-based Freehold remodeled and converted the building to a mix of office and industrial uses nine years ago. Since then the development firm has acquired more than 7 scattered acres in Interbay, spending more than $15 million to become the gritty neighborhood's largest private-property owner.

In a speech Thursday, Freehold principal Jeff Thompson laid out a long-term plan for redeveloping or reusing those properties, a vision he said was made possible in large part by the City Council's decision late last year to rezone much of the area.

The new zoning allows taller buildings and mixed uses, including residential development, previously prohibited.

The change isn't everything Thompson wanted but "it gives us envelopes that we can do some creative things in," he said after addressing a luncheon meeting of Commercial Real Estate Women — Seattle.

Freehold's long-range plans call for 660 apartments and 339,000 square feet of commercial space — office, labs, industrial and retail — that Thompson said would support 2,000 new jobs.

The transformation won't happen quickly, he said, especially in today's economy. "We're challenged, as all of you are, by the capital aspect of it," he said. "... But we've been on this path for 10 years. We knew we'd hit one of these bumps."

But Thompson said Interbay could see some changes later this year, starting with what he called "adaptive reuse" of some buildings Freehold owns.

A 7-Eleven store on West Dravus Street, for instance, could become a cafe or two. A print shop a few doors away could become offices and retail.

Architects are working on plans for two apartment complexes that together would contain about 370 units, Thompson said. One on 15th Avenue West, now the site of a carwash, might include retail and some live-work units.

The other, once the site of a proposed Monorail station, might have medical offices on the lower floors.

Freehold won city approval last year to convert a vacant warehouse just north of the Interbay Building to offices.

Now that the market has softened, Thompson said, the firm is exploring redeveloping the building as an entertainment venue, perhaps a bowling alley.

Several potential operators are interested, he said: "We believe the economics are there."

Another proposed mixed-use, nonresidential building across Thorndyke is on hold while Freehold seeks a rezone to allow more uses, including, perhaps, a private school, Thompson said.

Interbay's location between affluent Queen Anne and Magnolia is an asset, he said, as is its proximity to 15th — one of the city's busiest arterials, and the route of a proposed "bus rapid transit" line.

"It's a leftover place," he said of the neighborhood, "but it's at the center of things."

Eric Pryne: 206-464-2231 or epryne@seattletimes.com