Seattle's Fourth & Blanchard tower, the 25-story glass-and-steel slab locals know as the "Darth Vader" building, has hit the market, becoming the latest downtown office high-rise to be shopped as owners reshuffle their portfolios. The Belltown tower, long associated with Martin Selig Real Estate, was picked up at a courthouse auction last year and is now being offered to investors as a central-city prize at a sharply reduced price basis.
According to the Puget Sound Business Journal, the building is expected to sell for less than half of its assessed value. The outlet also reports that the current ownership stems from a 2025 courthouse auction that transferred control of the property.
What’s for sale
Colliers, serving as exclusive advisor, is marketing Fourth & Blanchard as a 410,114-rentable-square-foot office tower with 25 stories, roughly half of its space leased, and about 221 parking stalls, per LoopNet. The marketing brochure touts a diversified, multi-tenant rent roll and calls out average suite sizes tailored to smaller, budget-conscious users. The pitch frames the building as a basis play for investors willing to roll up their sleeves on leasing and capital improvements.
How it landed on the market
Martin Selig's firm lost several downtown Seattle office properties to lenders in late 2025, and Fourth & Blanchard was among those that shifted hands through a trustee's sale, as detailed by the Puget Sound Business Journal. That lender-driven turnover set up the current sales effort and the building's newly reset, lower cost basis.
Buyers' calculus and market context
The Colliers materials highlight a downtown leasing trend that favors smaller footprints, noting that most recent deals have been for less than 10,000 square feet, and position the tower for a lease-up and repositioning strategy at its reduced pricing level. Broader coverage of the commercial market points to cautious improvement in transaction activity and underwriting in 2026, hinting at potential upside for investors who can execute a leasing or repositioning play, according to CoStar News.
Colliers is fielding inquiries from qualified prospects and plans a formal marketing process that could wrap up in the coming months. For Belltown and downtown tenants, a sale could usher in fresh leasing energy or a repositioning push for one of the neighborhood's most recognizable office towers.
