The Ruins will stay open after buyer found for building

Update, December 6: The Ruins will stay open, reports the Puget Sound Business Journal. Dhruv Agarwal, the owner of Fremont Foundry, another popular event space, purchased both the building and the business.

Public records of the building sale aren’t available yet, and Agarwal didn’t provide PSBJ with the amount.

Agarwal told PSBJ that the building’s owners gave him the opportunity to preserve the Ruins: “We really appreciated that... it’s very special that everybody came together to make it happen.”

The business sold for $195,000; the staff have been invited to stay on.

Original article, November 7:

A two-story commercial building in Uptown (or lower Queen Anne, depending on your preference) is for sale. Built in 1928, it stands out for that classic warehouse style, with huge, multi-paned windows and an ornamented roofline. But what really makes it stand out is inside: The bottom floor is home to the event space and members-only dining club The Ruins.

Both the building and the business are for sale. A representative for the Ruins told us that without a buyer, the business will close in January after their annual January 1 member dinner.

The elaborately-designed space features four separate event venues: The Ballroom, with hand-painted murals; reception space the Chocolate Room; and both a large and small dining room.

All of them are eclectically decorated, from an outdoor courtyard covered in ferns to large animal statues—including a commanding life-size elephant—to commanding formal chandeliers. The walls are painted in bold, bright colors under high ceilings. French doors can either open up the space or create more intimate gatherings.

Even more behind-the-scenes spaces, like kitchens, are colorful and offbeat.

Upstairs, two vacant office suites provide more space, but aren’t quite as exciting-looking (yet).

When it was first built, according to its historic designation, the building was home to an auto body-building plant for Tricoach Manufacturing Company. Later, it became a drafting office and then a pottery manufacturer. The Ruins moved in and remodeled in the early 1990s.

The building’s listed for $4.3 million.

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