The Shangri-La is a low-cost apartment building in Seattle, Washington, which is popular with single/divorced men. Niles briefly lived there between 1998-1999 in Apartment 8.
The building features also a rec room, and a hot tub (that Niles calls a "six man petri dish", and a "NO CREDIT, NO PROBLEM" sign out front.
About[]
In 1998, as Niles is divorcing Maris. and tries to get her to sign the financial settlement, she attempts to win him back by sending him expensive gifts, however, Niles rejects them, to which she retaliates by freezing his accounts. After that, Niles can no longer afford to live in his apartment at The Montana, and is forced to sublet it and move in with Frasier in his apartment, but his two-week stay becomes troublesome for Martin and Frasier. Meanwhile, he attempts to look for a new apartment, but quits after first day after finding nothing tolerable in his price range and goes to the movies instead. When Roz sees him (due to the fact he carries his own seat cushion) and tells Frasier about it, Frasier decides to accompany him to apartment hunting.
They arrive at the Shangri-La, and the building manager, Frank, shows them around, and Niles immediately wants to leave. However, Frasier pushes him to stay, and to see the apartment, which is really cheaply furnished. It became available after Gary, its previous occupant, moved out and left a few personal possessions (some clothes, bedsheets and a four-slot toaster) behind without a forwarding address, which his sister was supposed to pick it up. The apartment features a Murphy bed (a fold-down wall bed), and a fold-down ironing board cabinet (about which Niles asks Frasier "You sure that's not the guest room?"). Niles wants to leave, but Frasier tells him that he won't be able to afford any other place in town.
However, while he's living there, Niles starts feeling depressed. When Frasier lets it slip at home that Niles is living at Shangri-La, Martin enthusiastically says that Duke had lived there during his divorce and "let me tell ya, that's my kind of place", causing Frasier to whimper "What have I done?".
Frasier and Martin then visit Niles at Shangri-La, and he answers the door wearing an Hawaiian shirt left behind by Gary. He mentions that he was about to go over to a ping-pong tournament at the rec room, after his neighbor Jimbo invited him to be his partner, As a welcoming gift, Niles received some wine coolers from the other residents. Martin comments that Niles seems happy, but Frasier knows he's just covering. Frasier and Martin start to argue, and Martin again says "I'd be happy here myself - this is my kind of place!", causing Niles to howl "Get me out of this hellhole!" and call Maris to beg her to take him back. However, Frasier and Martin try to talk him out of it, and Niles instead tells her his new address for forwarding his mail, then hangs up and mentions that when he heard her voice, he knew he couldn't go back. Frasier tells Niles that living in the apartment might be the price he'll have to pay for his freedom, to which Niles replies "Well, it's worth that." As Niles is about to sign his lease, Frasier takes out a Noel Coward pen that Niles bought earlier, but had to return, upon which Frasier bought it, and gives it to Niles as a "little housewarming gift". Then Frasier, Niles and Martin drink the wine coolers and Frasier offers to take Niles out to dinner at Cigare Volante.
When Niles has to host a dinner party for his gourmet club, he mentions he can't do it at the Shangri-La, saying "I can't tell the cream of Seattle's gourmet set that I've moved out of the Montana and into that gulag with a game room."
Niles lives in the apartment until his new lawyer, Donny Douglas, reveals to him that Maris's family wealth didn't come from timber, as she told him, but instead from urinal cakes. Figuring out that Maris would not want that information to go public, Niles calls her and threatens to expose her family secret, so Maris finally agrees to a settlement, allowing Niles to move back his apartment at The Montana. Since Niles didn't want to be embarrased about where he was living, he lied to his neighbors at The Montana that he was instead on a lecture tour in Africa.