EVERETT – Larry Nalbach always wanted to own an old building.
In 1973 he got his chance. In a time when many Everett residents were packing up and leaving town, he was buying a weedy, boarded-up brick building for $23,175.
“I never felt like I could afford one, and then I found this one,” said the former Boeing Co. employee.
He didn’t know it right away but this was a place with some history. Everett residents raised money to build it in 1929 as a home for orphans.
Nalbach would spend several years convincing a bank to lend him the money to turn the building into apartments and talking his neighbors and the city into changing the zoning. He has owned and operated the apartments for 30 years.
Now Nalbach is offering the public a chance to buy part of the historic building, located at 2120 Highland Ave. He converted the apartments into 22 condominiums, priced from $164,950 to $184,950. Homeowners would pay an additional $135 to $158 a month in dues.
“I have owned and loved the building since 1973,” he said. “Now it’s time for me to give up ownership and move on.”
The two-bedroom, one-bathroom units feature new everything: Pergo flooring, maple cabinets, carpet, vinyl, appliances, trim and paint.
Nalbach said he cared for the apartments well but nobody wants dark millwork or old bathtubs. Those are new, too.
Before the complete makeovers, the units were assessed separately by Snohomish County at $57,500 to $74,000.
The outside of the building is tidy and landscaped with lines of shrubs and trees. He added statues of lions and a round sign: “Lions Gate Highland Condominiums.”
He estimates spending about $40,000 a unit for upgrades. The units range in size from 900 to 1,100 square feet and are situated on three levels.
The condominiums are an affordable alternative to what’s available, said Philip Nice, the real estate agent handling the sales.
“In Everett this is one of the best buys,” Nice said. “You can’t find a doghouse for $250,000.”
The building is located in the Riverside neighborhood. When Nalbach bought the building, he estimated a third of the homes in the area were vacant, vandalized or for sale.
That’s changed, Nice said.
“It used to be you didn’t want anything east of Broadway or south of 19th,” he said. “But those lines have changed dramatically.”
When the building was built in 1929, it provided a larger, modern facility for the Deaconess Children’s Home. The organization had struggled to find decent housing for the city’s orphans for years. At one point, the orphans lived in a “wooden warehouse” next to the railroad tracks on McDougall Street, said David Dilgard, an Everett historian.
Just as the Depression was hitting America, people here reached deep into their pockets to buy land on Highland Avenue and build a decent home for the city’s orphans, he said.
City residents raised $32,000 in three days for the Deaconess Children’s Home, according to organization records.
Reporter Debra Smith: 425-339-3197 or dsmith@heraldnet.com.
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