When the ULab construction began in 2022, the owners of the red houses next door did not sell. Now, almost four years later, talks are still ongoing.

“I have tried to talk about selling,” Susan Lansverk, assistant head of school for finance and operations, said. “But [the owners] are not responding. So it’s a one-way conversation, really on that piece.”

Lansverk is the main line of communication between UPrep and the property owners.

“It’s my thing. I’ve held this relationship for years,” Lansverk said. “We communicate about things that neighbors communicate about.”

Zoning laws that came into effect Jan. 21 would potentially increase the red houses’ land value to UPrep.

“There’s proposals for a lot of neighborhoods in Seattle where they’re going to essentially upzone,” Lansverk said, “make it so that you can build more dense housing on property.”

She added the zoning laws “would make things possible for us”

According to a City of Seattle zoning website this area is changing in House Bill 1110 to change from LR1 to LR3.

This means Uprep or anyone else like a real estate developer. would be able to build taller, more unit buildings after the zoning changes, potentially making the land more valuable.

Another factor: the buildings are currently not suitable to rent, Lansverk thinks.

“They needed to have some serious upgrades in order to still be rentable,” Lansverk said “And so that takes a lot of money to upgrade an old building to make it something that’s desirable for a place to live.”

Lansverk declined to name the owners, and Puma Prints was unable to independently confirm their identity.

Head of school Ronnie Codrington-Cazeau has interacted with people who think UPrep owns the houses, negatively affecting perception.

“I’ve gotten questions from neighbors, ‘Why don’t you clean up your property?,’”said Codrington-Cazeau.

According to Lansverk, there still seems to be a chance the owners sell.

“We are the most logical future owner of that property,” Lansverk said. “And I believe that at some point they will decide that it’s time. They may get sick of dealing with the challenges of having a vacant property.”

When it comes to plans for what to do with the property there are some unknowns.

“We honestly don’t know,” said Codrington-Cazeau. “I think if we do get it, our first project would be, probably, to tear down the red building so that the neighborhood looks better,”

Codrington-Cazeau knows what she hopes for.

“My absolute dream would be for those buildings to belong to UPrep,” Codrington-Cazeau said.