You don’t need to be an expert in commercial real estate to see that something has gone badly wrong at the old Inn at Queen Anne.

Plywood covers many windows and doors of the brick-fronted former Seattle hotel. Razor wire menacingly guards the entrance. The place has been dark now going on two-and-a-half years.

Mike Garner, though, is a commercial real estate expert — with 45 years in property law. Retired, he walks by the once bustling Inn a few times a week. It’s more than just an abandoned building in Lower Queen Anne, he said. It’s become a sad symbol of the region’s struggles with the homelessness crisis.

“It’s a microcosm,” Garner said. “They always start off with good intent. There’s a big splash announcement. But then they’re unable to achieve their goals.”

The big splash was b

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