The Rent Trap: Why Seattle's Business District Is Running Out of Room
As the city booms post-fire, merchants find themselves priced out of First Avenue, forced to migrate up Third and beyond in a desperate search for affordable space.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Store Buildings Are Scarce.
Good Homes for Renters.
They are now higher than ever before and good locations very few. When a city reaches the point where, in its maximum rate, there are no available rooms for sale, it would seem that the time for more building has come. Yet that is just what Seattle is experiencing at present. The man who has been lucky enough to secure a place on the sound near his business may well be thankful.
Every available floor of business on First, Second and Third avenues is let, and has been for some time, and all are bringing high rents. A well-known man, who has been in the real estate and building business for many years, says today: 'Business is so much lower now that I can't maintain.' There is one thing that I am especially pleased to note, and that is the healthy advance in rents over what they have been any previous year in the history of the city. Since the Klondike boom began and commerce commenced to flourish for the permanent place of residence, rents have been gradually coming up, until those who own houses now realize what it is to be landlords.
The bull line in the business district has not been bringing their owners the money they are worth in past years, and the present rate is no higher than is fair.
Another business man who has a large store on Second Avenue said: 'I have no time to leave here at any rate. I began to look for a location. I found that there was no room, as all available store rooms were occupied, and I simply had to wait until a new building, which is now being built, was ready for use, and then the rent was very high but it was high rent or no room, so I took it up.'
And how did you first begin? was asked.
'Since I have been in business I have found no room for complaint here,' he replied.
As an evidence of the scarcity of storerooms, it may be said that not a few of the smaller merchants have been entirely crowded off of First and Second avenues, up to Third and even Fourth avenues. Pike Street also shows signs of the trade growth of the city; every building being occupied.
'Rents are higher by 10 per cent. than during any previous year in the city's history, except perhaps following the fire, and then the conditions were not permanent,' said a real estate man this morning. 'If I had money I would not want a better proposition than is still a few business blocks along First and Third avenues. I would be sure to rent them. The line of trade on First avenue above Pike street has driven it down First avenue on the list of available streets for business locations, and I will not be surprised to know that a few first class business blocks are soon to be built.'
'You know that anyone is contemplating building blocks along upper First avenues?' was asked.
'No, I don't know anything about it; but I would not be surprised to hear of it being contemplated immediately.'
This 1900s-era account of Seattle's commercial real estate crunch mirrors the city's modern housing and office space crises. Just as merchants were then pushed from First Avenue to Third due to post-fire speculation, today’s small businesses and residents face similar displacement pressures from rapid gentrification and skyrocketing rents in downtown and Capitol Hill.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.