Admiral Safeway site sold for $30.7 million to new owner of Link, Mural

August 11th will mark a year since the opening of the new Admiral Safeway at 2622 California SW. But the anniversary will be marked under new ownership for the property.

County records confirm a sale first reported by the Daily Journal of Commerce: Safeway sold it last week for $30,710,000, to an LLC called SVF Admiral Safeway Seattle, an entity of Southern California-based American Realty Advisors. That firm, we noticed during research, is also the new owner of the Link (4550 38th SW, sold in March for $62 million) and Mural (4727 42nd SW, sold in March for $42 million) mixed-use buildings in West Seattle, both developed by Harbor Properties and sold after its merger (we reported the sale plans but not final word on the buyer).

As best we can tell from the online paperwork regarding the Admiral Safeway deal, it includes the store and the retail building on the northwest side of its parking lot; the deed mentions the tenancy rights of Safeway, Menchie’s, and Umpqua Bank (WSB sponsor), the three businesses currently in place (with additional space still vacant in that smaller building). We have inquiries out to both Safeway and American Realty Advisors for more information, and will add anything more that we learn.

JanS July 30, 2012 (12:45 pm)

wow…big dealin’s !

MB July 30, 2012 (12:57 pm)

$$BALLIN$$ ahha. So.. will safeway stay open?

Lola P July 30, 2012 (1:42 pm)

More importantly… will Fresh Bistro at Mural stay open?

coffee July 30, 2012 (2:07 pm)

So is Safeway now a franchised location? Confused!

WSB July 30, 2012 (2:14 pm)

I still haven’t heard back from them or the purchasing company, but I do know they don’t own all their real estate. Right here in West Seattle – Jefferson Square, for example. So this isn’t necessarily unusual, but certainly noteworthy.

Kgdlg July 30, 2012 (2:23 pm)

Safeway is likely in it’s own condo or it is a longterm lessee of that space. Either make he deal more valuable from an investment standpoint. It’s not like safeway is going to up and move anytime soon.

Thanks for highlighting that these buildings are built and positioned as investment vehicles. This is a big part of why this building product is so popular right now. it would be awesome to do a post on the mechanics of this sometime, maybe with Maria barrientos who is building the project down in Delridge…

Jeff July 30, 2012 (2:27 pm)

Sorry to hear that another retail/apartment living space has been purchased by this company. I currently live in the Link Apartments. The new management is having a hard time keeping tenants, myself included. My month to month lease will not be renewed next month. They are also not having the best luck even with their leasing team. I love West Seattle and I hope they can make some better business decisions.

M July 30, 2012 (2:44 pm)

Title is a little misleading and should probably be changed. The store itself was not sold but rather the property that it sits on and the building it is in. Nit-picking, yes, but a great distinction. Most grocery store location properties around here are not owned by the companies themselves but rather leased from the land owners. Were Safeway to move out of the location after their lease was up, it couldn’t continue to be a Safeway just because someone else owns the building.

WSB July 30, 2012 (3:20 pm)

M – I can put the word “site” into the headline – it was there at some point. Of course, it also would be great if Safeway and/or the site’s new owner would return our messages so we can hear it directly from them, but I’m also used to doing the best I can from online records/hard-copy paperwork if people choose not to comment … TR
.
(p.s. please make the same point to the DJC, which also bills this as “Admiral Safeway sold” …I don’t know what else they reported about it, because we didn’t renew our $400/year subscription, so all I could see was that it had been sold; the confirmation and all the other research is ours alone.)

heidi July 30, 2012 (2:51 pm)

Dear fellow west seattlites:

Please shop locally.

Thank you,

Your small, local, independant retailers who aren’t selling their businesses for millions

Bill Bacon July 30, 2012 (2:55 pm)

America Econ 101. Great long-term holdings, lease income, property depreciation reducing taxable income, minimal operating costs (new buildings), and for the corporate lessees, rental expenses reducing income from operations because it’s a cost of doing business. Sweet, sweet, sweet. Where’s the money coming from? The users and the customers who make it all possible. Who says it doesn’t pay to be a commercial landlord?

steve July 30, 2012 (4:21 pm)

any more info on the situation at link apartments? jacking up the rents? what is making it lame there? I have read about the management change, and they are rather pricy for being right next to a fire station.

SillyGoose July 31, 2012 (7:17 am)

No suprise on Safeway, as a previous employee who left because there are no employee hours at this store it barely makes payroll every week, local shoppers have been very negative about this store’s size. Hence the reason there are never courtesy clerks to bag your groceries. Every day in the register all I heard was complaining from customers that the store is too big! I hope it remains a Safeway as I love it!