Martin Selig’s Idaho Home Hits the Market

Martin Selig appears to be feeling the heat at his Idaho ski chalet from his company’s recent financial issues.

The Seattle real estate mogul and head of Martin Selig Real Estate has listed his home in Sun Valley, Idaho, for $13.5 million, dropping the price from $15 million a few months ago, the Puget Sound Business Journal reported.

The mansion at 709 Fairway Road sits on 1.6 acres and boasts six bedrooms and six bathrooms across 8,600 square feet. The home’s interior features over 3 miles of redwood paneling, according to Katherine Rixon of Rixon + Cronin, who listed the property. “This house is for the lover of architecture,” she told the Business Journal.

To cool the home, cold air is collected from a pond on the home’s north side and distributed in ducts throughout the two-story manse. In the winter, warmth is provided by passive solar heating through massive windows rather than a traditional furnace system.

Selig bought the mansion in 2007 for $6.1 million. It was originally completed in 1986 and was built for the late California venture capitalist Reid Dennis and his wife, Peggy. The property overlooks Trail Creek and the Trail Creek Golf Course.

In recent months, Martin Selig Real Estate has been losing ownership of properties across the Seattle area as the company fails to pay back $858 million in loans, according to The Seattle Times. Last month, a court ordered that nine buildings owned by the firm enter custodial receivership following a default on $378 million of debt.

Nineteen of the roughly 30 downtown Seattle buildings in Selig’s name have been placed under outside management or handed over to lenders since late last year. Office vacancies in the wake of the pandemic have made paying back loans that much more difficult.

In May, Selig lost control of The Modern, a 36-story office tower in Belltown, over a $235 million loan he’s been unable to repay. In March, seven other Selig-owned office buildings, including the headquarters of his company, were put into receivership after the firm defaulted on a $239 million loan. The company then laid off more than 80 employees.

Besides the office buildings, Martin Selig Real Estate has also lost parking lots across the city. Seven lots were taken over by receivers in February after the company borrowed $50 million against the properties from Goldman Sachs and couldn’t pay the loan back.

— Chris Malone Méndez