Tight space may mean new life for casket factory

An 81-year-old casket factory on the Everett shore may get a new lease on life as residential space.

While the real-estate market is cooling in some parts of the U.S., demand continues to surge in the Seattle area. That has prompted developers to step up their search for properties — even old, abandoned addresses.

The North Coast Casket Factory, a red timber building used to assemble and store caskets for 71 years, was scheduled for demolition until the Port of Everett decided to seek bids from developers.

Now it might become meeting space or artists' live/work lofts as part of a $300 million, 600-condominium redevelopment of the Everett waterfront.

"Any real estate out there that has any possibility of being renovated, there are buyers," said Marty Goodman, 50, a principal at Seattle-based developer Justen Co.

In Seattle, the former Queen Anne High School overlooking Lake Union became apartments in 1986 and soon will be transformed into million-dollar condominiums. Credit goes to the sweeping views and to the shortage of housing.

In April, median prices of single-family homes hit $419,000 in King County and $329,900 in Snohomish County, according to the latest monthly home-sales report from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.

Several cities, including Boston and Cincinnati, saw home prices decline for the first time in 15 years this past quarter, according to the National Association of Realtors.

Homes around Seattle are still in demand because jobs are being added. About 5,200 positions were created in Washington state last month, the 33rd-straight monthly gain, according to the state Employment Security Department.

Housing supply remains tight. The number of properties available for sale in Seattle fell 4.2 percent in April from a year ago, according to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service. Construction in Seattle has lagged population growth.

For every 10 jobs, there are two downtown residences, according to the city. To spur more housing, the City Council in April passed a measure allowing taller skyscrapers.

"There's a lot of employment being created here," said Scott Nodland, who is managing the renovation of the former Queen Anne High School for Legacy Partners. "It's placing a lot of demand on all properties to become residential."

Seattle-based Lorig Associates bought the high school from the school district and converted its rooms into apartments 20 years ago. Legacy Partners, based in Foster City, Calif., bought the building from Lorig for $25 million in November and has spent about $10 million renovating the apartments.

First dibs

Units there start at $400,000. Two-bedroom units with views might fetch more than $1 million, Nodland said.

Students who attended the high school anytime from 1909, when it opened, to its closing in 1981 will be given preferred status to buy the 137 renovated units after current occupants.

The units range from 500 square feet to 1,400 square feet and go on sale in the next few months.

Seattle's first classrooms to be converted into condominiums were at West Queen Anne Elementary School, a Romanesque, two-story brick building built in 1896 and converted into 49 apartments in 1989.

Developers' search for housing has helped spare distinctive buildings that might have been demolished, said Karen Gordon, the city's preservation officer. "There's a willingness to take a risk," she said.

Another building likely for rehab is Seattle Plumbing, a wedge in the city's Pioneer Square district that resembles New York's Flatiron Building.

Historic Seattle, the city's nonprofit preservation group, and Seattle developer Nitze-Stagen plan to spend $20 million to renovate the former plumbing-supply warehouse into offices, condominiums and a parking garage. The building was constructed in 1903.

Farther north, the Port of Everett plans to announce a developer June 5 to renovate the casket factory, said Lisa Mandt, a Port spokeswoman. Renovations are estimated to cost $8 million to $12 million. Bids were due May 24. About six developers toured the site in April, Mandt said.

Options include live/work loft space above an art gallery or public meeting rooms.

The three-story, 60,000-square-foot building stands on a piling over tidelands now given over to loading docks and warehouses.

Hulbert Lumber built the factory in 1925. Caskets were assembled on the first floor, finished on the second and stored on the third.

The building is the only surviving example of the mills that used to populate the lumber town, now a center of Boeing aircraft production.

Living in a former casket factory has cachet, said Chris Moore, field director of Washington Trust, a state historic-preservation organization that has assisted the project.

"There's the, 'Oh wow, how cool' factor," Moore said.