By MARK HIGGINS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

THE SAMIS LAND CO., Seattle's sleeping real estate giant, is stirring. Samis is the creation of the late Sam Israel, a colorful business baron who parlayed a shoe business into a multimillion-dollar real estate empire stretching to Moses Lake.

The Samis Foundation controls 500 properties statewide, including 40 in Seattle. Most famous among the 14 Samis buildings in Pioneer Square is the worn but regal 522-foot-tall Smith Tower. The foundation is expected to play a big role in Pioneer Square's future, as are the Buttnicks, another family that owns several buildings.

Israel's trademark was never to sell and never to invest more than he had to in a building. As a result, his properties were sought after by artists and start-up businesses willing to tolerate a lack of maintenance in return for low rents.

In 1987, Israel established his foundation to support Jewish causes, including elementary and secondary education in the state. Following Israel's death in 1994, the foundation hired William Justen, a veteran real estate specialist and former Seattle building official. Justen's resume includes helping convert Lake Union's steam plant into the ZymoGenetics research lab. And he assembled the land for the new Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center.

"It's exciting for me to do something with the (Pioneer Square) buildings, when for years they were simply not available," says Justen, a longtime resident of the Pike Place Market who plans a move to Pioneer Square as a personal commitment to the area.

Redevelopment began with two decrepit Square hotels owned by Samis: the Corona at 606-610 Second Ave., and the Northern at 109 First Ave. With the exception of ground-floor tenants, both hotels had sat empty for almost 50 years.

Before the renovation, the Northern Hotel gave only a glimpse of the structure's lingering charms, concealed as they were by dirt, dust and pigeon droppings. Once considered Pioneer Square's best hotel, the Northern has massive moldings, rooms with fireplaces and pocket doors, and 12- and 14-foot ceilings. During the tour, a copy of the Daily Racing Form dated Dec. 22, 1939, was found in a linen closet.

Justen says the hotel's location in the center of Pioneer Square and its tall ceilings make it perfect for market-rate apartment lofts.

Continued:

• A new ballgame for artist lofts and flophouses, tourism and nightlife
• Big changes planned in tiny area
• Pioneer Square forms its own home team of defensive specialists
• Artists fear their low rents and high ceilings will fly, fly away
• Out of smoking desolation, blocks of high Victorian Romanesque style