Little cafe to survive monorail meltdown

Taiki Hong Lee wept tears of joy last night upon learning she'll be able to buy back her little cafe that was condemned for an unbuilt monorail station.

Caffe Appassionato, across from the Space Needle on Broad Street, will be resold to the Lee family for $650,000 — or $70,000 more than the Seattle Monorail Project paid last year to Taiki and her husband, Young Lee, in a forced buyout.

The agency's board members, most of whom joined after voters last year halted the financially troubled project, voted unanimously Thursday to approve the sale.

"I'm so glad I'm getting my property back," Lee said. "They made a mistake, [but] they tried to clean it up for us. So I'm glad."

She bowed to Rick Osterhout, a lead broker with GVA Kidder Mathews, who helped negotiate the latest deal on behalf of the monorail agency. Standing on the sidewalk outside monorail headquarters, Osterhout patted his heart and told her: "We really wanted this to happen."

The land maneuvers were traumatic for the Lees, immigrants from South Korea who bought the century-old wooden structure nine years ago, then rebuilt the interior.

Shortly after voters approved a monorail in 2002, its architects, under then-Executive Director Joel Horn, envisioned the lot as a parklike entrance to a large, illuminated train station. Even after the costly design was dropped, SMP continued to press for condemnation.

State lawmakers this year considered bills to curb government powers, but those languished. Monorail attorneys told the board it would be illegal to resell to the Lees at less than full market value, as set by a bid competition held on March 17.

Taiki Lee was sure big developers would gobble her triangular lot in a package offer, buying it along with a huge parking lot behind the cafe.

But she was spared when another bidder paid for the parking area, not the cafe.

State Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, a nonvoting SMP board member, called the sale "a very positive move," and Chairwoman Beth Goldberg agreed.

The Lees' $70,000 loss represents a gain to city motorists. It's part of a $14.4 million "profit" from 31 lots sold to date, which are fetching more than the $56.3 million it cost taxpayers to buy them. The gain allows SMP to retire its car-tab tax by June.

Lee figures she'll end up losing $120,000 — the $70,000, plus the cost of lawyers and real-estate experts over the past two years.

Still, Lee plans to throw a party soon.

Mike Lindblom: 206-515-5631 or mlindblom@seattletimes.com