Seattle Theatre Group, which owns and operates three local historic theaters, has paid $6 million for a 103-year-old Cornish College property.

Seattle Theatre Group bought the landmark Kerry Hall from the Cornish College of the Arts. The building, located at 710 E. Roy St., in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, was built in 1921 and was the home of Nellie Cornish, the college’s founder.

“We are thrilled to be able to turn this special space over to Seattle Theatre Group, one of Seattle’s most respected arts institutions,” said Cornish Interim President Emily Parkhurst. “It was important to the Board of Trustees that the building remain in the arts community and that our founder, Nellie Cornish’s legacy be honored.” 

Seattle Theatre Group, which operates the Paramount, Moore and Neptune Theaters and an outdoor venue at Remlinger Farms in Carnation, will use the building to grow and expand its community-centered arts programming.

A Jacksonville developer is defining its project as regenerative placemaking. The developer, Future of Cities (FoC) has received a $5.5 million incentive package and a rezoning from the city to build a 10-building innovation hub as well as an 830-unit multifamily community. The grant will support adaptive re-purposing of warehouses and greenspace to be built over the span of 8.3 owned acres. The City of Jacksonville has authorized a 50 percent, 15-year recaptured enhanced value (REV) grant not to exceed $1.5 million for the project. The project is called the Phoenix Arts & Innovation District.

Besides the apartments, the $38 million project will consist of creative office space, artist studios, galleries, event and gathering spaces and retail and restaurant space. The first phase of development began in December 2023 with the groundbreaking for Emerald Station. The 100-year-old Emerald Station building houses a mix of 25 creative office spaces, a community gathering space and a 500-person event venue. 

Cushman & Wakefield has been retained to market the foreclosure sale of AtTraction, a historic 58,118-square-foot historic, adaptive reuse asset located in two buildings at 800-810 Traction Ave. in Los Angeles’s Arts District. The property is being sold through the site’s former lender and now current owner.

A Cushman & Wakefield team comprising Mike Condon Jr. and Erica Finck are representing the seller. The building had originally housed the Joannes Brothers Company, a coffee, tea, and spice processor and wholesaler, followed in the mid 1950s by the Los Angeles Desk Company. The previous ownership had acquired the property in 2021 and was deep into an adaptive reuse plan .

“Aside from the real estate being objectively one of the best assets in the market, the deal structure offering an opportunity to buy the Arts District’s crown jewel at a basis comparable to the former lender’s, combined with the optionality for seller financing, creates a one-of-a-kind buying opportunity for an investor or user,” said Condon. “Finally, the buyer can benefit from finalizing a redevelopment of the project on third base, given millions of dollars have already been spent on many of the base building elements to date, creating substantial additional value.”