Announcement About 2, 4, and 6 Nickerson
I’m happy to announce another important strategic property acquisition. The campus expansion we have completed this last year will certainly be ranked among the University’s most important since the campus aggressively expanded during the 1950s and ’60s.
The most recent acquisition has not been made by the University, but by the Seattle Pacific Foundation’s endowment investment pool as part of its real estate asset allocation strategy. The property includes the three office buildings on Nickerson Street immediately east and contiguous to Wallace Field. The buildings and lots pictured below are referred to as 2 Nickerson, 4 Nickerson, and 6 Nickerson. Faculty and staff who moved out of Alexander Hall this fall due to the building’s renovation and seismic retrofit are currently on the second floor of 4 Nickerson and will reside there until Alexander is ready for occupancy in the fall of 2014.
The Foundation is the majority owner in the real estate partnership that acquired 2, 4, and 6 Nickerson with a minority owner and general partner who will also manage the facility. As need arises, the University will be leasing a portion of space in these facilities while a majority of the combined 80,000 square feet will be leased out to third-party tenants. As such, this strategy is expected to yield significant investment return to the University’s endowment. The University will have opportunities to purchase the buildings out of the partnership at certain times over the next five to 15 years, but is not required to do so.
The long-term use of the buildings will be informed by the emerging strategic plan and a complementary campus master plan. The campus master planning process will likely be a minimum three-year process (final timeline dependent on information developed from enrollment and educational goals emerging from the strategic plan as well as city institutional master planning requirements). If the campus master plan does not identify a meaningful long-term University use of any of these buildings they still will, in the end, provide a very positive investment return for the endowment. Please pray for God’s wisdom and guidance on this planning effort as it could have 50, or more, years of positive impact on SPU’s future.
I’m thankful for the successful effort of the staff team and outside consultants who worked on this under very tight timelines. Don Mortenson led a staff team of Gordie Nygard, Craig Kispert, Dave Church, and Nick Glancy along with consulting legal, property, and environmental experts since early July and with high intensity since October 1 when it came under contract.
The purchase closed on December 17, 2013. It was one of the most complex negotiations and challenging acquisitions that has been undertaken by the Foundation/University. I’m also thankful for the support and wise counsel of the Foundation Board of Directors and University Trustees during these last six months.
Dan Martin
SPU President
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