Bellingham, Washington
Bellingham's owners of record sit on Whatcom County's open GIS parcel layer, and the most valuable ground belongs to public bodies: Western Washington University, the City, the school district and the Port of Bellingham, which owns the waterfront.
10 buildings · 10 with an owner established · 13 sources · 4 tier A · 6 tier B · prepared 2026-11-03
Can you find out who owns it?
Washington records title by deed with the county Auditor; the Whatcom County Assessor keeps the tax roll. The County's open ArcGIS parcel service publishes every parcel's title owner and taxpayer names, mailing address, use, acreage and market value with no sign-in and no licence on the service page. The Assessor's own per-parcel Property/ACCESS lookup asks the user to accept an RCW 42.56.070 pledge that lists of individuals will not be used for commercial purposes; this research did not accept it. Every conveyance needs a real estate excise tax affidavit, so sale prices are on the record, but no free open file of Whatcom sales was found.
Is ownership public?An open dataset names the owner
Cost of one title searchNo search fee stated on any page opened; the County GIS parcel layer is free and anonymous. The Assessor's Property/ACCESS lookup is free but gated by an RCW 42.56.070 commercial-purposes pledge (not accepted). Auditor recording and copy fees are on www.whatcomcounty.us, which returned a Cloudflare block
Bulk ownership dataWhatcom County GIS, EnterprisePublishing/WhatcomCo_Property MapServer layer 0 'Tax Parcels' (Assessor's real-property parcels; title_owner_name, tax_payer_name, mailing address, situs, use code, exemption, acreage, market and taxable value, year built), queryable in 2,000-row pages with no sign-in; 99,840 parcels countywide, 26,042 in Bellingham's city tax areas
Sale pricesEvery sale, with its address
Sites that forbid taking their data
- property.whatcomcounty.us — “IMPORTANT: RCW 42.56.070 prohibits the release of lists of individuals requested for commercial purposes.The requester expressly represents that no such use of any such list will be made by the user or its transferee(s) or vendee(s). I understand, acknowledge, and accept the statements above, and agree to adhere to the prohibitions listed in RCW 42.56.070 .”
1
The marquee buildings
The towers that set the tone of the core, and who holds them. A price is the price a document states, on the date it states — not an estimate of what the building is worth now.
| Building | Use | Owner | Owner type | Last price paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bellingham City Hall 210 Lottie St 39,816 sq ft (roll building area) |
Civic | City of Bellingham Whatcom County roll (prop 74948): title owner 'City of Bellingham Finance Dept Asset Division', use 'EXEC LEGIS/J', 1.91 acres, built 1938, 2026 market value $10,993,004, exempt. The roll does not name the building; the address is City Hall's. |
Government | —A |
| Whatcom County Courthouse 311 Grand Ave 220,209 sq ft (roll building area) |
Civic | Whatcom County County roll (prop 74822): title owner 'Whatcom County-Miscellaneous Executive Office', use 'OTHR GVRN SV', 2.77 acres covering lots 1-24 of block 12 of Central Whatcom with vacated Lottie St and Central Ave, built 1949, market value $55,209,653, exempt. It is the County's most valuable parcel in the city. The roll does not name the building. |
Government | —A |
| Western Washington University, main campus Campus south of downtown (roll situs 'WWU') |
Institutional | Western Washington University The roll's largest single parcel in Bellingham by value: prop 76659, 196.0 acres, use 'UNIV/COLLEGE', zoned IN, market value $451,505,813, exempt. In all, the university holds 18 parcels, 249.9 acres, $590.6M, inside the city tax areas, about 2.4% of the city's $24.39B market roll. A separate WWU Foundation also holds parcels. Wikipedia gives a 215-acre campus and 14,710 students (2024). |
Government | —B |
| PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center 2901 Squalicum Pkwy 507,750 sq ft (roll building area) |
Institutional | Sisters of St Joseph of Peace & Health Hospital Services Roll prop 63053: 15.05 acres, use 'HOSP SERV', built 1972, market value $126,961,213. The same owner name holds 47 parcels, 59.4 acres, $191.3M in the city; parcels in the name 'PeaceHealth' add 14 more. Wikipedia places the hospital at 2901 Squalicum Parkway, the only hospital in Whatcom County, with 251 licensed beds, opened in 1891 by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace. The City's 2021 ACFR (via Wikipedia) lists it as the largest employer, 3,116 staff. The roll line carries a contact name, omitted here. |
Institution | —B |
| Bellis Fair Mall 1 Bellis Fair Pkwy 453,688 sq ft on the main parcel; 773,000 sq ft per Wikipedia |
Retail | Bellis Fair Mall Territories LLC The roll puts 15 parcels, 54.9 acres, $53.8M market value in the name Bellis Fair Mall Territories LLC; the main parcel (prop 192490) is 25.48 acres, use 'REG SHOP CTR', built 1988, $27.8M. Wikipedia: Brookfield Property Partners defaulted in February 2022 on a $77 million loan, taken a decade earlier for $93 million when the mall was valued at $145 million, and 4th Dimension Properties bought it at auction in December 2022 for $44 million. The link from the LLC to 4th Dimension rests on Wikipedia. Opened 1988; developed by General Growth. |
Private company | $44M 2022-12 Auction price per Wikipedia, which names the buyer 4th Dimension Properties; the County's sale record was not opened. B |
| Bellingham International Airport (BLI) Northwest of the city, unincorporated Whatcom County |
Civic | Port of Bellingham Wikipedia: BLI covers 2,190 acres, three miles northwest of Bellingham, in an unincorporated area of Whatcom County, operated by the Port. On the County roll the Port holds 19 parcels coded 'AIRPRTS/FLDS' or aircraft use, 153.85 acres, $6.5M market value, all in rural tax areas, which is far less than 2,190 acres; the rest of the airfield was not matched on the roll. Countywide the Port holds 166 parcels, 879 acres, $367.0M. |
Government | $1 1957 Wikipedia: 'Whatcom county sold the Airport to the Port of Bellingham for one dollar in 1957.' B |
| Waterfront District (former Georgia-Pacific pulp and tissue mill) 298 W Laurel St and neighbouring parcels |
Mixed use | Port of Bellingham The Port: 'In January 2005, the Port acquired all 137-acres of Georgia-Pacific's waterfront property' and partnered with the City to clean it up and redevelop it. On the 2026 roll the Port's Waterfront general binding-site-plan parcel (prop 193011) is 49.31 acres, exempt; the Port holds 72 parcels, 418.2 acres, $294.0M in the city, including the Squalicum Harbor marina (163 acres, $70.0M). Harcourt Developments, contracted in 2013 to develop 19 acres (Wikipedia), holds the Granary Building, 1211 Granary Ave, through Harcourt Developments Granary LLC ($11.3M). |
Government | —B |
| Hotel Bellwether 1 Bellwether Way 79,362 sq ft (roll, leasehold improvements) |
Hotel | Port of Bellingham Land; the hotel building is a leasehold account of Bellwether Harbor Investments LLP The hotel's own site gives its address as 1 Bellwether Way. The roll's real-property parcel there (prop 52994, 0.88 acres, use 'HOTL/MOTL68U', $1.64M) is owned by the Port of Bellingham. The County's leasehold layer carries the building (prop 52995, built 2000, $10.6M) in the name Bellwether Harbor Investments LLP. A Bellingham Business Journal item on investors buying the hotel lease could not be read (bbjtoday.com unreachable). |
Government | —A |
| Bellingham Towers 119 N Commercial St 93,675 sq ft (roll building area) |
Office | Bellingham Towers LLC Roll prop 74984: title owner and taxpayer Bellingham Towers LLC, lots 1-8 and half of lot 9, block 9, Central Whatcom; 0.65 acres, built 1930, use 'OTHR BUS SER', market value $11,827,664. No sale price was found on an open page; the building is often described as the city's tallest, which no opened source stated. |
Private company | —A |
| Encogen cogeneration plant 915 Cornwall Ave |
Industrial | Encogen Northwest LP Roll prop 54182: title owner Encogen Northwest LP, 5.23 acres, use 'ELEC GEN PLT', market value $117,716,318, the city's single most valuable taxable parcel. Puget Sound Energy's 2025 Form 10-K lists 'Encogen, Natural gas co-generation, 165 [MW], 1993; acquired 1999' among its plants. The roll does not itself name PSE; the link from the LP to PSE rests on the 10-K's plant name. |
Private company | —B |
2
The core land
The most valuable ground in the city, and what the public record says about it.
The most valuable ground in Bellingham is public and exempt: the university, a City tidelands parcel in Fairhaven, the hospital. The core figures are 2026 market values on the County's GIS roll as of 2026-11-03.
City roll, market value$24.39B (taxable $20.84B)
26,042 real-property parcels in the Bellingham city tax areas; County GIS layer 0, 2026-11-03.
Highest-valued parcel$451.5M
Western Washington University main campus, 196 acres (prop 76659), exempt.
Highest-valued taxable parcel$117.7M
Encogen Northwest LP cogeneration plant, 915 Cornwall Ave, 5.23 acres.
Land-value benchmark, downtownabout $7.7M per acre
Highest land value per acre among parcels of a quarter acre or more: 903 State St, 0.26 acres, land $1.99M (North State Street LLC).
3
Who owns the town
At this scale the significant owner is rarely a trust or a fund: it is one or two local holding companies, a family in its second or third generation, and often the land around the town rather than the buildings in it.
Public bodies dominate Bellingham's roll. Inside the city tax areas (26,042 real-property parcels, 14,689 acres, $24.39B market value in 2026) the City, the Port, the school district, Western Washington University, the state college board, the County and the housing authority together hold about 945 parcels and 4,160 acres, 28% of parcel acreage, and $2.14B of value, most of it exempt. The biggest private holdings are a hospital system, a cogeneration plant, a mall and a few apartment and land companies. Counts are from the County GIS layer on 2026-11-03 and group every spelling of an owner's name the roll uses.
| Name | Type | Parcels / acres in city (2026 market value) |
|---|---|---|
| City of Bellingham Held under several department names: Finance Dept (414 parcels, 1,433 acres, $384.2M, including a 33-acre Fairhaven tidelands parcel at 200 McKenzie Ave, use 'OTHR GVRN SV', $150.7M, the City's most valuable parcel), Park Dept (115 parcels, 353 acres), Water Dept (6 parcels, 541 acres) and plain 'City of Bellingham' (167 parcels, 571 acres). By far the largest landowner in the city by acreage. |
Government | 704 parcels, 2,900.5 acres ($505.3M)A |
| Port of Bellingham The waterfront: Squalicum Harbor (163 acres, $70.0M), the former Georgia-Pacific site bought in 2005 (49.3-acre Waterfront parcel), the Bellwether peninsula, the marine terminal at 355 Harris Ave and the Fairhaven terminal. The airport lies outside the city. |
Government | 72 parcels, 418.2 acres ($294.0M); 166 parcels, 879 acres countywideA |
| Western Washington University The most valuable public holding in the city; the main campus parcel alone is 196 acres, $451.5M. A separate Western Washington University Foundation holds residential parcels. |
Government | 18 parcels, 249.9 acres ($590.6M)A |
| Bellingham School District No. 501 Two spellings on the roll ('Bellingham School District No 501' and '501'). |
Government | 47 parcels, 272.5 acres ($307.9M)A |
| Washington State Board for Community & Technical Colleges (Bellingham Technical and Whatcom Community colleges) The state board holds the campuses at 3028 Lindbergh Ave (30.2 acres, use 'VOC/TRD SCH', $49.2M) and on W Kellogg Rd (use 'JR COLLEGE'), and, with 'Washington Community College', a 3.7-acre parcel at 204 Olivine Ln ($30.5M); 'Whatcom Community College' holds more under its own name. Which college uses which parcel is read from the use codes, not stated on the roll. |
Government | 22 parcels, 102.9 acres ($147.0M)B |
| Housing Authority of the City of Bellingham On the roll under three names ('Bellingham Housing Authority', 'City of Bellingham Housing Authority', 'Housing Authority of the City of Bellingham'); the largest is a 99+ unit complex at 455 Westerly Rd (13.2 acres, $30.2M). |
Government | 31 parcels, 61.9 acres ($180.0M)A |
| Sisters of St Joseph of Peace & Health Hospital Services / PeaceHealth The St. Joseph hospital campus on Squalicum Pkwy and clinics; the largest private (non-profit) holder by value. |
Institution | 61 parcels, 86.0 acres ($211.9M)A |
| Whatcom County Courthouse at 311 Grand Ave ($55.2M) plus parks, tax-title land and offices, under several department names. |
Government | 51 parcels, 156.8 acres ($119.3M)A |
| Kulshan Community Land Trust A community land trust holding home sites across the city; one of the largest holders by parcel count, though its parcels carry almost no value on the roll. |
Institution | 125 parcels, 15.5 acres ($0.19M land)A |
| BNSF Railway Company Rail right-of-way, switching yards along Roeder Ave and the D Street freight terminal. |
Public company | 37 parcels, 26.0 acres ($5.6M)A |
| Puget Sound Energy Substations and the utility yard at 1110 Kentucky St, in the name 'Puget Sound Energy/Elec'; the Encogen plant is held separately by Encogen Northwest LP ($117.7M). |
Private company | 30 parcels, 40.1 acres ($12.1M)A |
| United States of America The Postal Service at 3150 Orleans St and the Coast Guard parcel at 28 Bellwether Way. No military land in the city. |
Government | 2 parcels, 4.8 acres ($8.0M)A |
| Whatcom Transportation Authority Bus base and stations. |
Government | 9 parcels, 19.8 acres ($23.3M)A |
5
Who builds the houses
New-home building in this market: the volume, and the firms behind it. Ownership of a builder matters as much as its volume — a private-equity platform and a family firm behave differently.
Bellingham builds little and mostly small: the Census Building Permits Survey for 2025 counts 231 single-unit buildings, 58 units in duplexes, 26 in 3-4 unit buildings and 422 units in 10 buildings of five or more units, 737 units in all. No national builder appears among the top holders on the roll; the land is held by local construction companies and development LLCs, and the largest apartment complexes are owned by single-asset LLCs (SSC Bellingham Apartments LLC, $62.8M; 900 N Forest Evergreen SPE LLC, $52.4M; Belleau Woods LLC, $41.8M). Kulshan Community Land Trust holds 125 home sites. Builder counts are 2026 roll parcels in the company's own name.
| Name | Type | Roll parcels in city (2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Greenbriar Construction Corp Largest construction-company holder of lots on the roll. |
Private company | 40 parcels, 31.3 acresA |
| Bakerview Development Group LLC Lots carried at no value yet, a new subdivision. |
Developer | 25 parcelsA |
| Skeers Construction (LLC and Inc) Two entities: Skeers Construction LLC (15 parcels) and Skeers Construction Inc (4 parcels, 31 acres). |
Private company | 19 parcels, 41.8 acresA |
| Woodland Hills LLC Land and lots, $6.7M in all. |
Developer | 59 parcels, 103.0 acresA |
| Alliance Properties 2000 LLC Land and lots, $9.7M in all. |
Developer | 57 parcels, 147.4 acresA |
| All builders (Census) Census Building Permits Survey, Bellingham place total. |
Private company | 737 units permitted in 2025A |
6
Commercial landlords
The commercial side, counted separately from housing: who holds the office, retail and industrial floor area.
No REIT reports a Bellingham portfolio in the filings opened; the city's commercial landlords are mostly regional LLCs. Ranked here by 2026 market value of non-residential holdings on the County roll, governments and non-profits left out. Floor area is the roll's building area.
| Name | Type | Roll holdings (2026) |
|---|---|---|
| Bellis Fair Mall Territories LLC The regional mall, bought at auction in December 2022 for $44M by 4th Dimension Properties (Wikipedia). |
Private company | 15 parcels, 54.9 acres, $53.8M; 659,170 sq ftB |
| BLI Sunset Square LLC Seven parcels on Sunset Dr (1001-1297): neighbourhood shopping centre, retail, gas station, restaurants. |
Private company | 7 parcels, 30.5 acres, $52.8M; 367,748 sq ftA |
| Lineage BCS LLC Refrigerated warehouses and industrial parcels. The roll gives only the LLC; that it belongs to the cold-storage REIT Lineage is not stated on any page opened. |
Private company | 11 parcels, 36.0 acres, $41.9M; 366,458 sq ftA |
| Costco Wholesale Corp Owner-occupied warehouse store, gas station and car wash. |
Public company | 5 parcels, 18.7 acres, $35.1M; 166,308 sq ftA |
| Meridian Kellogg LLC (65% share, co-owned) Retail and commercial parcels; the roll name itself records a 65% interest, the other holder is not named in the truncated field. |
Private company | 11 parcels, 21.8 acres, $31.1MA |
| Talbot Real Estate LLC Mostly industrial (16 parcels) and commercial (14) land; one of the largest private holders in the city by acreage. |
Private company | 38 parcels, 108.4 acres, $24.6MA |
?
Looked for and not found
Claims this page would have made if a source could be opened. They are left out rather than guessed.
- Sale prices: Washington's excise-tax affidavit puts a price on nearly every deed, but Whatcom's sale records sit behind the Assessor's Property/ACCESS pledge or on the Cloudflare-blocked county site, so no Bellingham deed price was read here; the only prices are the Bellis Fair auction ($44M, 2022) and the 1957 airport transfer ($1), both from Wikipedia.
- That Bellis Fair Mall Territories LLC is 4th Dimension Properties' vehicle (Wikipedia names the buyer; the roll names only the LLC).
- That Lineage BCS LLC belongs to Lineage, Inc., and that Encogen Northwest LP is Puget Sound Energy's (the 10-K names the plant, not the LP).
- Bellingham Towers as the tallest building in the city; the Hotel Bellwether lease sale (bbjtoday.com unreachable; cascadiadaily.com disallows ClaudeBot).
- The full BLI airfield (2,190 acres per Wikipedia) was not matched on the roll; only 154 acres of Port airport-coded parcels were found.
§
Sources
- Whatcom County GIS — WhatcomCo_Property MapServer, layer 0 'Tax Parcels' (Assessor's real-property parcels with title owner, taxpayer, use, acreage, market value; published 3/3/2025 service, queried 2026-11-03) — Whatcom County · openA
- Whatcom County Real Property — Property/ACCESS Information System welcome page (RCW 42.56.070 pledge) — Whatcom County Assessor & Treasurer · openA
- Real estate excise tax — graduated state rates (1.10% to $525,000; 1.28% to $1,525,000; 2.75% to $3,025,000; 3% above); controlling-interest transfers — Washington State Department of Revenue · openA
- Bellis Fair Mall (Brookfield loan default Feb 2022; 4th Dimension Properties bought it at auction for $44 million, Dec 2022; 773,000 sq ft) — Wikipedia · openA
- Bellingham International Airport (2,190 acres; unincorporated Whatcom County; County sold the airport to the Port for one dollar in 1957) — Wikipedia · openA
- Port of Bellingham — Property Acquisition Documents ('In January 2005, the Port acquired all 137-acres of Georgia-Pacific's waterfront property') — Port of Bellingham · openA
- Port of Bellingham — Waterfront District History (Georgia-Pacific pulp mill shut 2001; Port acquired the 137-acre GP property in 2005) — Port of Bellingham · openA
- Bellingham, Washington (largest employers per the City's 2021 ACFR; Port/City contracted Harcourt Developments in 2013 to develop 19 acres) — Wikipedia · openA
- PeaceHealth St. Joseph Medical Center (2901 Squalicum Parkway; 251 licensed beds; founded 1891 by the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace) — Wikipedia · openA
- Western Washington University (campus 215 acres; 14,710 students, 2024) — Wikipedia · openA
- Hotel Bellwether — About (location 1 Bellwether Way, Bellingham, WA 98225) — Hotel Bellwether · openA
- Puget Sound Energy / Puget Energy Form 10-K for fiscal 2025 — generating plants table ('Encogen, Natural gas co-generation, 165 [MW], 1993; acquired 1999') — Puget Sound Energy (SEC EDGAR) · openA
- Building Permits Survey — annual place data 2025, West Region (Bellingham: 231 one-unit buildings; 422 units in 10 buildings of 5+ units) — US Census Bureau · openA