A partnership of environmentalists, community organizers and real estate developers pulled off a deal this week that students of gentrification will dissect for years.

Lake Union Partners on Tuesday paid $23.25 million for Midtown Center, a retail center at East Union Street and 23rd Avenue in the Central District, Seattle’s historically black neighborhood.

The privately held Seattle company will sell a fifth of the block to Forterra, a Seattle land conservation group that will serve as the interim purchaser on behalf of Africatown Community Land Trust.

It appears to be the first time that a developer has bought land in Seattle and created an ownership opportunity for a nonprofit like Africatown, which seeks community ownership of land in the Central District.

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