(King County Assessor’s Office photos)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
While there’s been plenty of development in The Junction in the past few years, nothing new has been proposed for California Avenue SW since the construction of the mixed-use buildings now known as Junction 47 (California/Alaska) and 4730 California.
But now, for the first time in almost six years, a major new proposal has emerged for the heart of The Junction.
City files show a new early-stage proposal for 4747 California SW, described as a “7-story mixed-use building.” While the address is for the Bikram Yoga building, the preliminary site plan shows the project would also include the land currently holding the Sleepers in Seattle building to its north (4741 California SW).
That building is co-owned by Husky Deli proprietor Jack Miller, with whom we talked this afternoon about the plan. He stresses that it is early-stage indeed – no specifics on how many apartments or parking spaces (but he says there WILL be parking). Miller also emphasized to WSB that it’s an all-local team; the development firm listed in city files, HB Management – also on record as owner of the yoga building – was founded by one of his neighbors, Ed Hewson, a friend since childhood.
Miller says, “We’re hoping to make something really nice.” He says redeveloping the furniture-store site, in particular, is unavoidable because the 79-year-old building is deteriorating, from the roof on down. He feels building in that spot also will be least disruptive to The Junction’s business mix – “We love The Junction.” A new building might even be a new home for his own business someday.
The four lots involved (this would NOT go all the way to Edmunds – the corner lot is under separate ownership) are all zoned for 85-foot development (and potentially higher if HALA upzoning goes through as proposed), so a 7-story building would not be maxing out the capacity. The preliminary site plan carries the name of the architecture firm Ankrom Moisan, which is Portland-based but has Seattle and San Francisco offices. As always with development proposals, we’ll continue to follow up on this one, which will require Design Review if it gets to that stage.
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