I know I can afford it and I know I love it, but it’s expensive to maintain, I don’t use it very much and my business brain says, “This piece of real estate does not have a positive cash flow!” Name your biggest indulgence. My house in Palm Springs. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and beef anyhow, a Filipino dish. You’re stuck on a desert island and can have one book, one record and one food. What song would you like played at your funeral? I want Eddie Vedder to play “Black.” But other people would probably not agree with that. You have lots of stuff, memorabilia - are you a hoarder? Well, I say no. I’ll definitely get a gut feeling, but it all boils down to numbers.ĭescribe the role that money plays in your life. Having money makes life a lot less stressful but I’m not greedy and I don’t really care about money. The developers saved the façade but ruined the building.Īre you a numbers guy or do you fly by the seat of your pants? A bit of both. It was a beautiful, solid building and I regret not buying it because it ended up being gutted. Is there a specific building you didn’t buy when you had the chance and now wish that you had? The Austin Bell Building in Belltown. What’s the biggest mistake you’ve made as a businessman? I didn’t buy buildings in downtown Seattle when I had the opportunity, so perhaps I could have been less careful. I’d rather buy a really crappy building and fix it up than buy a building that’s turnkey. What’s important to you? Working and producing. I was in the right place at the right time. Everything now is so expensive, plus banks have gotten really conservative, especially since the last crash. If you were hitting the job market today, would you be able to pursue the same line of work? No way. How do you feel about the new construction going up in Seattle? In 25 years, people won’t be saying, “Wow, look at that cool building! I wonder who designed it?” It’s the last bastion of reality in Seattle. I get here in the morning and the business owners are literally sweeping their front steps. My second-biggest problem is garbage.ĭescribe the vibe of Georgetown. I spend one-third of my time dealing with parking. What is the hardest thing about owning and maintaining buildings? In the early ’80s, I bought an apartment building from an older guy who was retiring and when he handed me the keys, he said, “Son, do you know what your biggest problem is gonna be as a landlord?” I said, “Electrical or plumbing?” And he said, “Nope. How do you choose your tenants? I have a lot of artists and I love small businesses, so all my retail tenants are sole proprietorships. So, I bought my first house at age 19 for $7,000.ĭo you still have it? Yes! I’m superstitious.Īre you a good landlord or a bad landlord? I don’t want to pat myself on the back but I’m honest, my rates are reasonable and I treat all my tenants more than fairly. When did you buy your first building? I moved to Seattle in 1974, during one of the Boeing crashes, and was looking for an apartment when a realty-agent friend suggested I buy a house instead. ![]() The other day, a guy I was working with in a 100-year-old Georgetown building was going to drive a nail into a beam and I handed him my drill because I knew there was no way to hammer a nail into that beam without bending it. The architecture and the quality of materials and construction are amazing. Tell me what you like about old buildings. Why do old buildings matter? Because they tell the story of the city. Wouldn’t it be cheaper to knock the old stuff down and build from scratch? Absolutely! I’m a preservationist to a fault. You’ve been buying and restoring historic buildings for 35 years. Learn more at .ĭescribe what you do for a living. He has worked as a carpenter, locksmith, ditch digger, antiques buyer/seller and restorer of historic buildings - in West Seattle, where he built the Luna Park Café, and in Georgetown, where he has revived several buildings and serves as the neighborhood’s unofficial mayor. John Bennett grew up in northern Virginia and moved to Seattle in 1974. He helped found the Georgetown Merchants Association and the Friends of Georgetown History. Photo by John Vicory. ![]() ON A MISSION: Since 1996, John Bennett has been intent upon revitalizing Georgetown.
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