The portfolio of Fremont’s largest landowner is slightly bigger thanks to the recent $2.65 million acquisition of a tiny-but-prominent property where Dave Page Cobbler has operated for most of its 56 years.
Despite its unassuming size, the 113-year-old building situated on a 0.15-acre lot is hard to miss thanks to its bright red paint with green trim and location on Evanston Avenue North, just south of busy North 36th Street. Kitty-corner to the south of the building is the Fremont Rocket, one of the quirky public artworks that neighborhood boosters have used to brand their community “the center of the universe.”
Cobbling is rare, with only 80 shoe and leather workers and repairers in May 2023 in the Seattle metro, according to the latest data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Word of Page’s craftsmanship spread. A 1989 Seattle Times article said a climbing guide on Mount Kenya in Africa had sent boots to Page for years. A French climber sent Page special lifts to install in new boots even though the boot factory was only about 50 miles from his home.
Page and his crew were resoling thousands of Rockport shoes and Birkenstocks annually as the official factory service center at the time of the Times’ report.
Public records show seller Forward Investments LLC paid $1.375 million for the property at 1309 Evanston Avenue North ten years ago, whose value as appraised by King County is $1.34 million.
In an interview, Burke said she paid “too much” and added, “It’s just how it is in Fremont. When long-term owners want to sell we don’t quibble.”
The tenant and landlord met recently. “We all put our cards on the table. My feeling is he wants to stay,” Burke said.
Page told the Business Journal earlier this month he would know more after he and Burke met the following day. He was not in on Thursday, when a table in the shop was stacked with packages of footwear going to Alaska, Pennsylvania and elsewhere. Page did not return a call Monday.
A mountaineer and rock climber, Page was a University of Washington history professor when he worked in a small boot factory in Austria and found the work spoke to him, according to an Outdoor magazine article.
“It was the 3,000-year history,” he said. “The materials, the leather, hooked me,” added Page, who left academia and began cobbling in his basement and the business grew.
Fremont Dock Co. plans to lease out the rest of the building’s basement and generate more income by charging for night and weekend parking, said Burke, whose company owns around 65 acres in Fremont. She said the company will continue looking for opportunities to buy, as long as the property is in Fremont and touches another Fremont Dock property.
Burke said seller Lara Olsha of Forward Investments reached out and said it was time to sell. Olsha operated The Sweet Spot Sugaring Studio next door, which today The Sweet Spa Boutique occupies. Page said Olsha sold her business and retired in Mexico.
The $2.65 million purchase price represents a 93% appreciation over the $1.375 million Forward Investments paid in 2014, reflecting Fremont’s transformation from quirky arts neighborhood to high-value commercial district where even tiny parcels command premium prices.
Burke’s acknowledgment that she “paid too much” but “doesn’t quibble” when long-term owners sell demonstrates Fremont Dock Co.’s strategic approach of consolidating neighborhood holdings regardless of immediate return on investment, betting on long-term appreciation and development potential.
The 0.15-acre lot’s modest size belies its strategic value adjacent to North 36th Street, Fremont’s main commercial corridor where foot traffic and visibility create retail premiums that justify paying nearly double the King County assessed value of $1.34 million.
Dave Page’s transition from University of Washington history professor to internationally recognized cobbler represents Fremont’s historical identity as a haven for craftspeople and artists pursuing non-traditional careers, though gentrification increasingly prices out such artisanal businesses.
The scarcity of cobblers, only 80 in the entire Seattle metro area, makes Page’s operation culturally significant beyond its economic footprint, preserving a vanishing craft in an era of disposable footwear and fast fashion.
Fremont Dock Co.’s ownership of approximately 65 acres in Fremont positions the company as the neighborhood’s dominant commercial landlord, wielding substantial influence over which businesses survive as rents rise and properties redevelop.
Burke’s stated acquisition strategy, buying only properties in Fremont that touch existing Fremont Dock holdings, creates an expanding contiguous portfolio that facilitates future large-scale development projects requiring assembled parcels.
The building’s 113-year age and location near the Fremont Rocket make it part of the neighborhood’s historic fabric, raising questions about whether Fremont Dock Co. will preserve the structure or eventually demolish it for higher-density mixed-use development.
