(Correction: This article initially stated that InterIm could begin construction on the project by summer 2025; a more accurate timeframe would be spring 2026, according to InterIm.)
InterIm Community Development Association is under contract to buy and rehabilitate the empty Republic Hotel building, and add some 36 units of affordable housing to the neighborhood.
When the building at 416 7th Ave S went on the market earlier this summer, InterIm jumped at the opportunity to repair and repurpose the building, said Leslie Morishita, real estate development director with InterIm. Without intervention, Morishita feared the historic building could burst into flames, like the vacant former Viet-Wah Supermarket building did in June, or eventually just collapse.
“It’s a building we’ve just had our eye on forever because it’s so bad, it’s been just sitting there vacant, with graffiti, broken windows, vulnerable, exposed to the weather, and there’s been a couple fires inside of it.”
Under the contract agreement, InterIm has first rights to buy the building. The organization hopes to have financing lined up by January 2025, Morishita said. They will seek funding from the City of Seattle, King County, and the state to buy and rehabilitate the building. According to King County records, the property is worth $3,068,900, and rehabilitation will add significant costs.
If all goes to plan, InterIm could start construction on the building by spring 2026, said Akhil Arun, senior housing developer with InterIm.
Built in 1920, the Republic Hotel is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as a contributing structure in the Chinatown Historic District. It was built as a Single Room Occupancy (SRO) hotel for workers, and its units had shared bathrooms and no kitchens, according to a 2021 report by Kirkland-based Wu Architecture. The second floor was designed as the headquarters of the Chiu Lum Association, and the building hosted the Little Harlem Club around 1934.
The Wu Architecture report noted that it is one of the most vandalized buildings in Seattle. Wu Architecture was formerly part of a design team hired to rehabilitate the building after it was purchased by RAC Investments.
The sale of the building in 2014 displaced many senior, Chinese-speaking, long-term residents, said Morishita, and InterIm worked with many of them to find new housing. “It was really wrenching process,” Morishita said. “A lot of them, I think, really wanted to stay in this neighborhood. And some I think, ended up sharing apartments so they could stay in the neighborhood, so they could afford it.”
By 2014, the last tenant moved out, and by 2016, retail businesses were gone from the ground floor.
InterIm sees the rehabilitation as an opportunity to address displacement and keep people in the neighborhood who want to stay, as well as provide housing for people from outside the neighborhood who want to live here for its culturally appropriate services, businesses, and community, Morishita said.
“From our perspective, it’s like community control of land, which, long term, is kind of the gold standard, if you want to fight displacement.”
The plan is to build around 36 units, including studios, 1, 2 and 3-bedroom units for families, and a penthouse on top set back from view of the street. The units will be priced below 50 percent Area Median Income (AMI).
RAC Investments sold the building before realizing its goal of rehabilitating it, but did gut the interiors, according to Arun. No walls, doors or historic features preserved inside.
Rehabilitation will involve designing units, adding an elevator, power, and more, Arun said. InterIm plans to restore some exterior features, including historic neon signage, a decorative metal balcony, and will add improvements to the bricks and a rooftop terrace.
It will have room for two ground floor businesses, perhaps a restaurant and a cafe.
“You could think of it as a new building with old skin,” said Arun.
According to Morishita, people in the neighborhood who have heard about the project are relieved that something will be done to fix up the Republic Hotel, clean the graffiti, and put it to a new use. I think it’ll just uplift the community,” she said.
