Seattle Press on Line - The Sunset Will Rise (And the Street will Re-Open)

The Sunset Will Rise (And the Street will Re-Open)

Jun 29, 2000 -- The Sunset Hotel, the 1906 Ballard landmark which was gutted by fire two months ago, will be re-built and restored by a new owner, Olsen Furniture. Olsen occupies the building next door.

Art Olsen said his company has purchased the old hotel "for around $600,000," and will immediately begin the process of cleaning up the site and bracing and shoring up the remaining walls so that Northwest 22nd Avenue, which has been closed since the fire, can be reopened to traffic.

The new Sunset will have ground floor retail with two stories of apartments above, but Olsen said the actual residential configuration is uncertain. The turn of the century hotel was a warren of single rooms with bathrooms down the hall.

With the acquisition of the Sunset, Olsen will own the entire block between Leary Way and Ballard Avenue and from Bergen Place down to Wilson Ford.

Olsen does not plan to use the hotel to expand its furniture store, which was founded by Art Olsen's father Harold in 1933.

Several community groups are planning a celebration to mark the opening of Northwest 22nd Avenue. The tentative date is July 7.

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