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| Tad Van Patten is a leader within a tenants’ organization at Lock Vista, the Ballard building that faces an uncertain future. More than 50 tenants azof the 191-unit complex have moved out since plans for a condo conversion were announced last year. Photo by Mark Sullo |
The Wyckoffs have been very good to Seattle, donating time and money to the arts, the environment and retirees. But, when it comes to a condo conversion deal that’s left some of the family’s tenants in limbo since August, business is business.
That’s how Charles Dickey III describes he and wife Sheila Wyckoff-Dickey’s attempt to sell Ballard’s Lock Vista Apartments to a condo conversion group. After getting two extensions to close the deal, the potential buyer – Seattle’s Northlake Group – now has a final deadline of Jan. 31 to pull off financing the 191-unit complex of four buildings, which tenants turned into a poster child last fall for Seattle’s loss of affordable rentals to condos.
With Lock Vista being advertised for sale again in December – at $32 million, in a market that’s a lot softer than when the Northlake Group first made its offer – many observers speculate that the deal is now dead, but not the anxiety, disrespect and disruption, tenants say, to which the Dickeys have subjected them through endless rumors and more than 50 tenants moving out.
Sheila Wyckoff-Dickey is the great-granddaughter of William Pigott, founder of Renton truck maker Paccar. Her mother, Ann Wyckoff, led the charge to build the Seattle Art Museum’s new sculpture park, donating millions of her own money to the cause, while Sheila and sister Martha work largely on land-use issues through the Cascade Land Conservancy and Trust for Public Land, respectively.
Charles Dickey and his wife bought Lock Vista in 2004 for $18 million. He says they planned to hold the World War II era property as a long-term investment, but then someone came along and made an offer – one he notes needn’t jibe with the family’s philanthropic endeavors.
“I think our actions and our participation and philanthropic signature in this community speaks for itself,” says Dickey, owner of an asset-holding company in Seattle called Wyco Inc. When you blend business and social investments, he adds, “you often expect a certain kind of return in one and a certain kind of return in another. Sometimes they mesh and sometimes they look antithetical.”
To some observers, however, trying to turn Lock Vista into condos always seemed antithetical, even from a business point of view. Former Lock Vista owner David Tilton and others in real estate say a conversion at the site never made sense because of the extreme expense.
One of the reason studios and one-bedrooms at Lock Vista rent for roughly $600 to $800 is because the complex is old. So is its electrical wiring and plumbing, Tilton says – all of which would have to be redone in a costly down-to-the-studs remodel. “It was a stretch to sell it as condos,” he says.
The expense, he speculates, may have made it difficult for Northlake to finance the deal, especially in today’s market, which is much softer than last August when tenants first learned of the potential conversion. Tenants say their first notice was a posting on their doors telling them the city’s Department of Planning and Development would be conducting a presale housing inspection of their units.
“It was handled almost maliciously,” says Lock Vista resident Helen Murname, a 70-year-old retiree. “I would think any kind person, any thoughtful person, would write you a letter explaining why this is happening.”
From there, the tenants organized and, with the help of the Seattle Displacement Coalition, wrote a letter to Charles Dickey and Ann Wyckoff, who is listed in public records as a partner in the property. The letter asked for a meeting with the owners to discuss the potential of a nonprofit housing group or even the Seattle Housing Authority buying the property instead of Northlake. (House Bill 3142, which would provide quick loans for nonprofits to buy and preserve affordable rentals like Lock Vista, is currently making its way through the Legislature.)
The tenants also asked the Dickeys for more time to move than the 90 days allowed by law and that they pay each tenant $2,000 in moving money rather than the $500 required by the city when apartments are converted to condos. In addition, the letter requested that the Dickeys consider providing extra moving assistance to seniors, the disabled, and other renters living on a fixed income.
Dickey and Wyckoff never responded to the letter. But Lock Vista property manager Chris McCarty has promised more moving money for seniors — if the sale happens.
“I can assure you that we would do everything in our power to help people,” Dickey says, especially “those people who are elderly, infirm and on fixed incomes. Those are the folks we are sensitive to, and do have them in our mind.”
But, “it’s a truly fluid situation,” he says. “I’m hypothesizing, but if it doesn’t sell and we go back to a world where we decide we’re not going to sell it, it’s a real possibility we’ll continue it on [as rentals] and, in six months, it would be as if this never happened.”
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