Photo: Greekafella/Wikipedia
KOMO Plaza, built in 2003 and widely recognized as the exterior of the fictional hospital in “Grey’s Anatomy,” has been sold for $276 million, reports The Seattle Times. The sale is King County’s third biggest this year, behind two office buildings that sold for more than $300 million.
In the real world, KOMO Plaza hosts a data center, as well as local ABC-affiliated TV and radio stations Univision Seattle, KVI and Star 101.5. According to sales records filed last week, an entity linked to San Francisco-based investment firm GI Partners purchased the two-building campus from an affiliate of Houston-based Hines Securities.
The buildings are located along Denny Way, between 4th Avenue and 5th Avenue. The property was originally called Fisher Plaza and was owned by Fisher Communications. Hines Securities made a large profit from the sale given that it paid $159.4 million for the plaza in 2011 — PSBJ says that’s an increase of 72 percent over five years.
According to KOMO Productions, back in 2004, the producers of “Grey’s Anatomy” approached Fisher Plaza looking for a site to film a scene for the pilot episode of the show. They were considering Fisher Plaza and Harborview Hospital. Both locations had a helipad, but Fisher Plaza had more to offer with its proximity to Elliot Bay and the Space Needle. Once the decision had been made, Fisher Plaza was transformed into “Seattle Grace Hospital,” with crews painting logos and other graphics onto the helipad to give it an authentic feel.
The Seattle Times says that Hines Securities will continue to manage the building, and that KOMO Plaza’s various tenants will not be affected by the sale anytime soon.
