Sabey Corporation Purchases Original Rainier Brewery in Georgetown.

SEATTLE -- Sabey Corporation has purchased the original Rainier Brewery that extends over five blocks along Airport Way in the resurgent Georgetown neighborhood of Seattle.

"We believe this investment represents a great opportunity to support the revitalization of Georgetown as a thriving business and community center while helping preserve an important chapter of our local history," said Dave Sabey, CEO of Sabey Corp.

Sabey purchased the property from Rainier Ice & Cold Storage, Inc. for $9.9 million. The 5.5-acre property includes four buildings of 310,000 square feet: the Brew House, the Malt House, the Bottling Plant, and the General Office.

Sabey plans to redevelop the mixed-use property over the next five years. This would include preserving the historic landmark buildings with structural upgrades of the unreinforced masonry, introducing retail and residential uses, and making this colorful part of Seattle's past more accessible to the community. The intent is to be respectful of the current community of tenants and the neighborhood while adding to the re-emergence of the area.

Built in 1903 by the Seattle Brewing & Malting Company, the brewery was at one time the sixth-largest beer producer in the world. The brewery formed the company town of Georgetown in 1904 -- with the plant manager as the city's mayor -- as a "wet" outpost where alcoholic beverages were allowed. At that time Seattle was growing quickly through annexations, which threatened the brewer by restricting the sale of liquor through the efforts of the local chapter of the Anti-Saloon League of America.

But Georgetown was short-lived, with local voters approving annexation to Seattle in 1910. The brewery continued to produce Rainier Beer until 1916, when the state adopted Prohibition.

After the repeal of the Volstead Act in 1933, the family of Emile Sick purchased the plant but decided to construct a modern brewery at Spokane Street to reintroduce Rainier Beer. Rainier Ice & Cold Storage subsequently used the Georgetown property for fruit and vegetable processing, cold storage, and ice making operations. Alternative uses in light manufacturing and artist lofts sprang up over time. The Brew House experienced a massive fire in 1988 that destroyed half of the building.

In 1993, the buildings were declared Seattle Historic Landmarks due to their character and place in state history in propelling Prohibition several years before the adoption of the 18th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1919.

Today the property has 65 tenants, including Georgetown Brewing, makers of Manny's Pale Ale, as well as coffee roaster Caffe Umbria, aeronautical engineers AeroTEC, Vespa dealer Big People Scooters, and a thriving artist community.

In recent years, the Georgetown neighborhood has re-emerged as an attractive and up-and-coming area featuring small business activity and affordable housing.

Sabey has a long history of redeveloping older buildings, particularly in South Seattle. Previous projects include Park 90/5, which was Starbucks' original roasting plant and headquarters; South Seattle Business Park; Elliott Park North, which was a chicken processing plant converted to biotech use for Chiron and Cell Therapeutics; and, most recently, the conversion of the 1910 Sisters of Providence Hospital into James Tower, a life sciences community.

Sabey Corporation is a $500 million real estate development, construction services and investment company that has built 27 million square feet of commercial, industrial and residential space, manages three million square feet of its own commercial and technology space, and has invested in companies valued at more than $600 million. For more information, visit www.sabey.com.