Stories
View By Channel:View by Time: |
Today is the first day with the doors open and baked goods in the display case. The bakery is still unfinished and the whole selection won't be available til Monday. It is a soft opening to get warmed up for being a full service bakery very soon. Beehive is serving both sweet and savory baked goods as well as gluten-free baked goods. Cinnamon rolls appear to be one of their specialties with four variations. Only the sweet items are available at the moment but this will be expanded on Monday. Beehive is a certified Kosher bakery with their new certificate proudly displayed on the front counter. There are also espresso drinks and coffee. The paper has been taken down from the windows but the signs are still in pieces in the dining area. It is still a work in progress but exciting to see the new activity on the corner. Does anyone know what is going on with: 1. The bakery/coffee shop in the old Philly Cheesesteak building? The coming soon signs have been there since before Christmas and I’ve not seen any activity that indicates construction is going on inside. Has anyone seen anything happening there? 2. The cleanup on Jim Mueller’s project must be coming to an end soon, seems like there are so many projects going on close by ... maybe he can get financing now? I’d love it if the property owners of these stagnant projects would update the community every few months ... wouldn’t you? It’s demoralizing to see projects restarted a few blocks away while 23rd & Union remains the same. The plan by Central District's First Place School to put 16 units of low-income housing on its parking lot was controversial with some of our commenters when we first reported on the project back in March. But a hearing examiner's review of the project found that "no written public comments were submitted to DPD or the Hearing Examiner on this proposal," and the only testimony at the hearing was in support of the project. UPDATE: This post has been updated. Location information for the facility has been obfuscated due to privacy concerns. The core issue is whether that mid-block parcel should be rezoned from L1 to L3, which allows more height, more building area, and reduced setbacks from the property line. The hearing examiner looked at all of the factors surrounding the rezone and recommends approval of the project, having found that it has no negative environmental effects and supports the neighborhood plan's goal of adding 650 new units of housing within the surrounding area. The next step for the project...
After learning earlier this week that the controversial Swedish expansion along 18th was rejected by the city's hearing examiner, today we have found out that a very uncontroversial rezone request at 12th and Jefferson has gotten the green light from that same government authority.
The request from Capitol Hill Housing would allow for a six story building on the northeast corner of that intersection, containing 40 units of affordable housing and ground-floor retail below. CHH's Cecilia Gunn tells us that the final remaining step is approval of the city council. And if you happen to drive by the property, you'll see the signs of environmental cleanup, where crews are working to take out several decades worth of fuel pollution from a gas station that once sat on that corner. More details are available at the 12th Avenue blog: http://12thaveseattle.com/blog/?p=1613 
The Redfin blog provided an update last week on home prices in the Seattle area, noting that county-wide sales prices are down 3.5% for August vs. the same period in 2009. But we dug through Redfin's detailed neighborhood-by-neighborhood breakout and found that neighborhoods in the Central District are bucking that trend, with some rising significantly at the end of the summer selling period. Here's some examples:
Statistics provided by the Northwest Multiple Listing Service appear to confirm this trend, showing a year over year increase of 21% for the area between 520 and I-90. Last week the Seattle Time's reported that Garfield High School's popularity was driving some families to move into the neighborhood just to be in its attendance area. Perhaps that's one of the factors behind the rise in our real estate values? Seattle University students will have a spacious new place to get in shape when school starts next fall, as the University is preparing to break ground on a new fitness center in the 500 block of 14th Avenue. The two-story, 21,066 square foot addition to the university's Connolly Center will add space for new fitness equipment, a group exercise room, offices, and locker rooms for student use. The new structure will occupy what is currently a small parking lot on the southwest side of the existing athletic center, adjacent to the larger parking lot at 14th & Jefferson. The addition will bring the total area of the Connolly center up to 118,058 square feet. According to permits filed with the city last week, the new addition is valued at $3.9 million, continuing an aggressive building program that over the last ten years has seen the addition of a new Student Center, new housing, an alumni center, and additional instructional space around the campus.
The city Department of Planning and Development has recommended that the city move forward on a rezone requested by First Place School for their Central District property. UPDATE: This post has been updated. Location information for the facility has been obfuscated due to privacy concerns. The school is proposing to replace the existing parking lot that is midblock there with sixteen new units of affordable apartments, available for rental by families of children at the school. The school's focus is on educating and supporting children whose families struggle with homelessness. The rezone would take the property from the current L-1 zoning up to L-3, which would allow room for a 3rd floor of living space and reduced setbacks on all sides of the building. The next step is for the city Hearing Examiner to take up the issue, which is scheduled for September 9th at 9:30am. If approved there, the rezone would need final approval from the city council. We're trying to get some visuals of what the new building would...
The Squire Park Community Council and two hospital neighbors are gearing up for a September hearing that will consider their appeals of the a key city decision on Swedish hospital's proposed expansion east of 18th Avenue. The project has been controversial with neighbors who object to having large institutional buildings bordering their single-family homes. In June the city's planning department (DPD) issued a long-awaited decision that categorized the new development as a "minor amendment" to the hospital's 1994 plan for the campus, allowing the project to proceed with a minimum amount of community input on the project. The community group's appeal is targeting five specific elements of the decision:
It seems like it's been forever since we were able to write about a townhouse-related teardown. It seems like a few years ago they were happening once a week. But evidently there's still some life left in the local homebuilding industry, as an application has been submitted to replace a small, vacant, boarded-up house at 908 29th Avenue South with four new units of townhomes. The plan will include three buildings: two single-unit structures in front, and one duplex structure on the back half of the lot. All three buildings will be three stories tall. The project also includes two surface parking spots and two more in garages. 
If you've walked past 23rd & Union recently, you may have noticed a lot of activity inside the old Philly's building on the corner. Nora did and asked an excellent question in the comments last week: "What's happening at the Philly spot?" We spoke to Ian Eisenberg, the new owner of the building, who said that the building was in really bad shape. A leaking roof, a rodent problem, and "plumbing havoc" would make it very difficult for a small business to get started there. The work going on now will put everything into clean, working order, hopefully making it easier to find someone to occupy the long-vacant structure. Ian told us that he's primarily looking for "neighborhoody" restaurant tenants, including healthy fast food operators. Over the longer-term the property is eyed for a larger mixed-use development. But that won't come until the economy turns around, and after Jim Mueller's delayed development across the street gets the green light and starts a long-anticipated renaissance at the intersection. 
The big decision we've been waiting on for almost two years has come to a conclusion, with the city deeming Swedish's expansion project a "minor amendment" to the hospital's sixteen year old development plan. Neighborhood groups had strongly pushed for the city to designate it a "major amendment" due to the very different uses in the proposed project compared to the original institutional plans. Neighbors felt that the original uses, such as a daycare center, would be low-impact on the surrounding single family neighborhood, and that the switch to offices would not be compatible with that original vision. However, the city disagreed, deciding that while the uses on that block were different, the proposed uses were envisioned within the broader scope of the institutional plan, and than the relocation of those services did not meet the threshold for a major amendment. The full details of the city's decision is included in the pdf file attached at left. The Swedish expansion project will add 128,780 square...
What do you get for $1,275,000? The Madrona house overlooking Lake Washington that got some ink in the New York Times this weekend in the Property Values column of the Great Homes and Destinations section. The 5 bedroom, 2 1/2 bath Tudor, located at 724 36th Ave, was built in 1925. The price doesn't seem too steep when you consider that includes amenities like a 204-bottle wine cellar. Other properties profiled in the piece are a 6-bedroom house in Winchester, Mass., and a 3-bedroom in the Hollywood Hills. 
Last night there was a public hearing at city hall to gather public feedback on a proposed update to the city codes for multi-family development. You might ask "What is multi-family development?"
The rewrite of the multi-family code came about after more townhouses started to pop up in recent years. Many people disliked their design, in clusters of 4, 6, or 8-packs, their tall front fences, and the way they didn't seem to fit into the pre-existing space. As we told you last fall, architects looked at the issue and said that we're basically getting what we asked for. Current zoning codes, last written in the 80's, are prescriptive in what multi-family developments must have:
Last year Casa Latina moved into a remodeled office building at 17th & Jackson, and at the time they had told neighbors to expect a further expansion within a year or two. Planning for that expansion is well underway, with a design review scheduled for tonight to collect feedback on the three options their architects have come up with. The overall plan is to add 6,000 square feed of new office and retail space on the vacant lot just west of their existing facility on Jackson. They're proposing three total floors that will fit within the 40' height limit of the zoning there, with the first floor containing 2,000 square feet of retail space that Casa Latina will lease out to another business or organization. Development regulations require a total of eight parking spaces to be provided on-site. Option A provides for a two-story frontage along Jackson, with a third story above parking spaces on the back half of the lot:
Option B limits the Jackson-street side to a single story containing the ground-floor...
Last night's community meeting on the redevelopment of the county's Youth Services Center site included only slight refinements to the three design options we reported on last month. Apart from the controversial placement of green space in the project, each of the three options share the same overall features for the large six-block property:
As the 12th Avenue corridor continues to develop into a pedestrian-friendly home of new retail and residences, it's that last point that appears to create the biggest challenge for how the redevelopment project integrates into the surrounding neighborhood. The county's architects say they are well aware of that challenge, and are working on ways to address it. Things will be slightly improved if new private development goes...
Springtime is bringing an uptick in construction activity around the neighborhood, even in blustery rainy days like today. Here's an update on three big projects: Getting Started: The old buildings have been cleared off of the back side of the SCCC Woodworking School property at 24th & King, and construction crews are starting to turn over dirt in preparation to construct the new set of buildings there. And be careful! Signs say that there's a $1,500 fine for damaging any trees around the campus.
First Floor Going Up: The Catholic Community Services housing project is going up quickly at 23rd & Main. The foundation is laid, and various pieces of the concrete first floor are already up. A worker on site told us that the first floor should be complete by early summer, and then 2 and 3 stories of wood-frame apartments will go on top of that.
Almost Finished: The expansion of Epiphany School is nearing completion on the outside. Crews were out today working on various landscaping features around the...
As we reported last month, the Seattle Housing Authority has been expanding its Yesler Terrace holdings east of Boren to the area around 12th & Yesler. They purchased the corner property, formerly home of Pizza Time, in 2003, and over the years have picked up additional parcels north of that. All of the properties have sat empty since being taken over by the housing authority. In the 12th Avenue Stewardship Meeting on Tuesday, community leader Bill Zosel expressed some annoyance at the impact those vacancies have on the neighborhood and asked a SHA representative whether there was any plan to make better use of the properties while Yesler Terrace plans continue in the planning and design phase. We followed up yesterday with Virginia Felton, spokesperson for SHA, who told us that the current economic environment didn't support leasing the retail space that exists at 12th & Yesler. And although she couldn't give a timeline on when the property might be redeveloped, she said that the existing zoning...
Ever since the financial sector suffered a meltdown, we've had a lot of big building projects in the neighborhood get all the way through the permitting process and then languish without financing. But according to the developer of the proposed new apartment building at Broadway & Jefferson, that project has a firm funding commitment if it can get city approval by the fall of this year. The funding was secured several years ago before the economy tanked, with a long lead-time that was driven by the need to remedy the many years of automotive pollution that had seeped into ground under the site. The contaminated soil was removed two years ago, and the remaining levels within the groundwater are now within an acceptable range. Interestingly, the developer has cited the forthcoming First Hill Streetcar as a major motivation for the project, highlighting the potential for fixed transit to spur new economic development in neighborhoods. The 6-story building would add 100 units of market-rate apartments...
The court and office facilities at the King County Youth Service Center (aka juvie hall) are too small, too old, and too expensive to maintain. And as we told you last fall, the county is moving forward with big plans to rebuild them. This weekend county officials and consultants gave the Squire Park Community Council a preview of what's to come, presenting three options that they're working on, each with different layouts and arrangement of buildings and open space. The county will refine the options over the next couple of months and choose one option to move forward with, subject to county council approval and a public vote in November to fund the multi-million dollar project. Each of the three options have the same rough scope and size:
CASA Latina moved into the neighborhood just over one year ago, after remodeling and older office building at 17th & Jackson. Now the day-laborer social service organization is planning a big expansion with a new 3-story building that will fill in the vacant lot to the west of their current location. Here's how Casa Latina Executive Director Hilary Stern described the project in an email to neighbors around them:
The city planning department has posted a land use application that asks for a rezone of the parking lot owned by First Place School, which operates their programs in an old synagogue building in the heart of the Central District. The lot was purchased from the city for $1.9 million in 2001. UPDATE: This post has been updated. Location information for the facility has been obfuscated due to privacy concerns. The requested change from L1 to L3 would allow increased height and density on the block:
The application notes that the use would stay as a parking lot for now. We placed a call to First Place to get details on their reason for the rezone, but have not yet heard back. We'll update this...
As CDNews member Wave reported on this site last summer, the Bullitt Foundation had been planning to replace the small C.C. Attle's building with "a building that performed a series of technically rigorous functions in geology, hydrology and solar applications." With the first design review scheduled for this week, we've got our first look at what they were talking about:
It's a hyper-efficient five-story office building. Overall the project would go beyond the standard 65' height limit for that property, including an extra 10' to allow more daylight into the five stories.
The preferred design outlines three separate commercial spaces at ground level with entrances off of 15th, and entrance to the offices up the hill on the Madison side:
The roof and south wall along Pike Street hold a ton of solar cells, good for up to 261,000 kilowatt-hours per year. The average single-family house consumes about 60,000 kilowatt-hours per year, so that would be enough to power more than four homes.
The developer is also...
We've got the latest numbers from the Northwest Multiple Listing Service on current home sales activity in the neighborhood, and they show that while price declines are continuing around the neighborhood, there's more sales activity than at this time last year (note that these numbers are for a large area that includes the tony parts of Leschi and Madrona): Single Family Homes:
Condos:
Although prices are still declining, it's a good sign that more deals are closing and that inventory isn't increasing dramatically. That could be a sign that things are stabilizing in the market.
The plan for 18 loft-style apartments at 12th & Fir was one of the more ambitious projects of the real-estate bubble years. Now it's shaping up to be the Central District's poster-child of real-estate and banking woes, and how the resulting ownership confusion can leave us all with an unstable mess. The property at 151 12th was purchased by PbElemental in late 2007 for $575,000 and the old auto shop that sat on it was demolished the next year. But the mixed-use project never made it past the first set of design reviews, and it was cancelled last year. PbElemental also defaulted on the bank loan that was used to purchase the property, the corner lot was taken over by Evergreen Bank. But the empty lot was left in a state of disarray. The city cited it last year for an unstable, unretained slope along the back and side with no erosion control, putting neighboring properties at risk of damage. According to the citation (attached above), the city is requiring a geotechnical engineer to evaluate the site and...
CDNews reader SW emailed us and asked:
That vacant lot on the southwest corner of the intersection there is owned by Marty Liebowitz of The Madrona Company. He's a neighborhood developer who's work you'll probably recognize in the Bowling Green apartments in Madrona, or the Yesler Mews development in the 100 block of 22nd Ave. Marty also owns the old green apartment building next door, and has plans to build a new mixed-use development on the property. Like many large projects, it's currently on hold pending an improvement in the credit markets. We ran into Mr. Liebowitz at a meeting a couple of weeks ago, and he said that while there's no certain start date, but he's hopeful that things will improve in the second half of this year. Anyone with ideas for the property in the meantime can contact Marty at his website: |
