A 12th Ave space that has been home to a laundromat business for decades is shuttered and empty to start 2019. Lather Daddy lost its lease and is no more.

“We had steady clientele who had been coming there for years,” owner Luis Moreno told CHS about the closure. He purchased the laundromat about four years ago and had been operating it until late last year when he said building owner Shurgard Storage let him know they would not be open to renewing the lease.

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The storage company which operates the location under its Public Storage brand has put the laundromat space back on the retail real estate market in search of a new tenant.

CHS covered the 2011 sale and overhaul of the old 12th Ave Laundry founded by Paul Remillard “in the late 1980s.” Along with a new, neighborhood wink-worthy brand, Lather Daddy added features like music, cable TV, and wireless internet.

Moreno said he is sad to see the long run of the laundromat come to an end with many neighborhood residents dependent on building laundry rooms with long waits and often broken down equipment. A search of recent listings for Capitol Hill apartments show just under 40% of the ads promising washer/dryer setups in the unit.

Meanwhile, Moreno says his search for a possible new laundromat space on Capitol Hill has been fruitless — the “price per square footage is ridiculous.”