Paul Allen's Firm Buys More Land In South Lake Union Area -- Vulcan Now Owns 12.5 Acres, Talks Of Drawing Tech Companies

Paul Allen's Vulcan Northwest investment company has acquired two more parcels of land in the South Lake Union area to boost its holdings in the neighborhood to about 12.5 acres.

One parcel is the site of the former Terry Avenue Freight House, a restaurant that opened in 1974 between Harrison and Thomas streets on Terry Avenue North.

Albert Heglund created the restaurant by combining an old brick railroad freight house with railroad cars he parked next to it. Railroad memorabilia decorated the restaurant that was operated into the 1980s. More recently, it has been the home of a digital recording studio, Heglund said.

The other site purchased by Allen is occupied by parking lots near Ninth Avenue North and Republican Street. It was sold by Puget Western, which handles real estate for Puget Sound Energy, whose gas utility occupies a nearby office building.

Allen, a Microsoft co-founder, has a variety of real-estate and sports holdings, including Seattle's Seahawks football team. He is building a headquarters near Union Station at the south end of the Seattle downtown business district.

The newly acquired properties are in the area that was proposed as an urban park called the Seattle Commons. The proposal was twice defeated by voters.

Heglund said he was paid $3.5 million for the one-acre former restaurant property. The parking lots, comprising 1.25 acres, reportedly cost $5 million.

Allen acquired many other parcels in the area after the Commons proposal was defeated by voters in 1996. Allen had given the sponsoring organization $20 million and was repaid in properties it had purchased for the development that would have been a 42-acre urban park.

His company has announced no specific use for the properties although it has been acquiring additional parcels as they have come on the market. Company officials have talked of attracting technology companies to the area.

One site already owned by Allen, the 48,000-square-foot Rosen Building between Mercer and Republican streets, is the subject of negotiations with the University of Washington. Under the plan being discussed, it would become the initial building for the university School of Medicine's planned Institute for the Analysis of Molecular Systems headed by molecular biologist Leroy Hood.