Developer Selig Faces Foreclosure

Developer Martin Selig's financial troubles have surfaced again with a foreclosure sale scheduled for April 28 on the Fourth and Battery Building, one of many office buildings Selig owns in Seattle.

David Lombard, appointed trustee to oversee the sale, said Selig has been in default on a $7.6 million second mortgage on the building since July. The first mortgage on the building is held by New York Life Insurance Co., which has not filed foreclosure proceedings.

The second mortgage, held by Kearny Street Real Estate Co. of Los Angeles, is for money originally loaned to Selig by Rainier National Bank, which later became Security Pacific Bank Washington. Kearny Street Real Estate bought the loan when BankAmerica Corp. acquired Security Pacific several years ago.

The $12 million Fourth and Battery Building was opened in 1977. It has 18,000 square feet of offices on each floor.

Asked about the foreclosure notice, Selig's only comment, relayed through a secretary, was that "it's being taken care of."

Last year, Selig faced foreclosure proceedings against his Fourth and Vine Building, also in the Denny Regrade, on a $3.6 million loan held by the Washington State Investment Board. Selig settled that case, which came to public attention only because a foreclosure notice was erroneously published after the settlement.

Selig, who once owned as much as a third of Seattle's office space, has defaulted on his loans on other buildings, then paid up before foreclosure began.

"It seems to be a situation that continues to occur with Martin," said Tom Abbott of Cushman & Wakefield, a commercial real estate brokerage firm.

Selig's most famous building, the 76-story Columbia Seafirst Center, which he built in 1985, was sold back to Seafirst four years later to allow Selig to pay New York Life Insurance Co., which had sued him for $65 million in mortgage payments on other buildings.