Meet Suite 504.  It’s in the FX building in Seattle’s historic Pioneer Square. I work there.

At first glance, the sparse space looks rather ordinary and humble, quintessential office loft. It is approximately 2,000 square feet with an open floor plan accented with wooden beams and brick walls.  We thought about removing the commercial ceiling tiles to expose the overhead beams, but worried about what we may find hiding up there.

Despite this modest appearance, Suite 504 has a rich history. Prior to our lease, Gridnetworks occupied this space while building its high-quality video distribution technology. Last year, Gridnetworks raised $9.5 million from Comcast, Panorama Capital, and Cisco while working in Suite 504. Soon thereafter, Gridnetworks moved uptown for higher-grade facilities.   Now, there are reports that Gridnetworks has been sold to an unidentified “desktop video environment company” based out of New York.

Prior to Gridnetworks, the  space was occupied by Esurg, an online medical, surgical, pharmaceutical and office supplies company. In the early 2000’s, this startup’s successes accumulated to its own eventual acquisition by LLS National LLC in 2005.

My company, ZeroDash1, moved into Suite 504 in September, 2007. We were a small team of 12 trying to build up a web analytics consultancy. We cleaned up the austere space, organized the open spaces and made it home. Five months later, we were acquired by digital marketing agency, Ascentium. Actually, we had two separate offers for aquisition, and ended up selecting the better fit.

Ascentium kept Suite 504 as a small Seattle satellite office. Ascentium’s headquarters is in Bellevue. Most of us split time between the large, premium, well-equipped Bellevue office, and our cozy Seattle office, still with its unique startup feel. Someday, we will vacate Suite 504, and another startup company will move in. Will that company keep the streak going?

Yes, Suite 504 looks pretty plain. It’s like so many other Pioneer Square office spaces that are favored by Seattle technology entrepreneurs. Yet, Suite 504 is anything but ordinary. Some extraordinary ideas have grown out of its rustic walls.