West Seattle, Washington
26 Friday
Last night, we published a short summary right after the design-review meeting about the Conner Homes megaproject in The Junction; now, here are full details on what was seen and said, and what happens next:
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
The crowd reaction was a bit reminiscent of an evangelistic church service when Rene Commons (above) stood before the Southwest Design Review Board last night to show those photos she’s shown holding. Many people in the 50-or-so-member crowd murmured and mumbled “uh-huhs,” maybe just short of an “A-men.”
Her point was that the Conner Homes two-building, 7-story megaproject at California/Alaska/42nd needs architectural flair, given its prominent future position in the heart of the business district that is now branded as Downtown West Seattle.
And the desire to see more detail is part of why SWDRB members asked Conner and his development team, including architects from Weber Thompson, to come back for (at least) one more review.
A public notice is published today for an upcoming foreclosure auction that, according to online records, includes the lion’s share of one of Alki’s newer condo developments, 1350 Alki Avenue SW (built in 2008, which is also when the Google Street View image above was made). Of its 10 units, one is sold, according to this sales website and county property records. The foreclosure/notice of trustee’s sale document on the King County website (read it here) says that as of January, $5 million was owed, and says that what’s being offered at auction at the county Administration Building downtown on April 10th includes 9/10ths interest in the land and seven of the condo units.
A major followup this morning to our status report yesterday on the idled Fauntleroy Place/Whole Foods development at 39th/Alaska/Fauntleroy: WSB has learned that a lawsuit has just been filed. The firm that has been developing the project, BlueStar Management, is suing Fauntleroy Place LLC (the official site owners), Seattle Financial Group, and Seattle Capital Group (one of the governing parties of FP LLC). We are working right now to get a copy of the full complaint, but a watchlist of newly filed lawsuits summarizes this one as alleging breach of contract and defamation. Construction on the site has been idle since last fall, and Seattle Capital disclosed in late January that they were in the process of selling the site, though they have not been available for comment this week and the status of the reported sale is unknown. More to come; we will add comments and documents to this story as we get them. 11:12 AM UPDATE: BlueStar’s Easton Craft referred us to the company’s lawyers for comment, and we expect to speak with them soon. There also is word of an additional lawsuit linked to this project, also filed this week, and we are working to get details on that. 8:09 PM UPDATE: We have a statement from Susan Rae Fox at Ryan, Swanson and Cleveland, the firm representing BlueStar, in response to several questions we asked:
BlueStar Management, Inc. filed the action to recover unpaid management fees incurred in connection with the Fauntleroy Place project and is merely seeking to be fairly compensated for the project development services it rendered. BlueStar has been committed to, and worked diligently for the Fauntleroy Place project from the very beginning and was shocked and saddened to be summarily terminated in December 2008.
The action was filed after a formal request for mediation was rejected and was in no way intended to adversely affect any current activity on the project. BlueStar continues to believe that bringing Whole Foods to West Seattle as part of the Fauntleroy Place development will be good for West Seattle. BlueStar wants to see the project succeed and does not believe that the filing of this action is inconsistent with that goal.
Tonight’s Design Review meeting for the Conner Homes (owner Charlie Conner, photo left) project at California/42nd/Alaska won’t be the last. After a somewhat rushed meeting — High Point Library had to close at 8 pm, no matter what — board members agreed the project wasn’t quite ready for final design-review approval. Board chair David Foster told WSB afterward that they’ll work with city planners to see if that last meeting can be scheduled sooner rather than later – perhaps in three weeks (which would be Thursday, April 2nd). More details later on the concerns, and kudos, expressed for the project, what board members want to see in that next review, and what else happens now. (Monday morning note: Full article will be published separately no later than noon this afternoon.)
Some who closely watch the Fauntleroy/Alaska/39th site that has become better known as “Hole-In-The-Ground Foods” have pointed out that more of the idled construction equipment has moved off the site in recent days and weeks. So we launched a new round of checks, a month and a half since it was revealed the Fauntleroy Place site is being sold. First – we went to the Ledcor Construction site office across the street.
They’re still open (though prominently posted as “not hiring”), they describe the project as “on hold,” and they say the equipment was moved to another job site where they needed it. Next – a check with Seattle Capital, which spoke with WSB for our late January report; no callback yet – the main contact is out of town. After that – a check with BlueStar, the original developer. Eric Radovich says they cannot comment on where things stand now, but they are still hopeful they will be chosen to continue with the project under its new ownership – and he reiterates that their other two West Seattle projects, Spring Hill (5020 California) and Gateway Center (the optioned Huling Buick site immediately across from Fauntleroy Place), are up in the air depending on what happens with Fauntleroy Place. We also contacted Whole Foods‘ regional spokesperson Vicki Foley, who replied with this:
I contacted our Regional Construction Project Manager and he said that although we know that the ownership of the project is most likely changing, Whole Foods Market has a fully executed lease with benchmark dates that we are expecting the LLC to honor regardless of ownership.
That would be Fauntleroy Place LLC, still in county records as the official owner of the site, whose current “governing persons” are listed in online state records as Seattle Capital and BAJ Capital (owned by Christopher NeVan but dissolved earlier this month, per state corporation records).
Tonight could be the last Design Review session for Conner Homes‘ two-building, 7-story project at California/Alaska/42nd, and that means potentially one of the last in-person public-comment opportunities on the first major redevelopment project in the heart of The Junction. If you missed our report Tuesday, here’s the link to the presentation that’ll be shown tonight; the meeting’s at 6:30 pm at High Point Library (map). Lots of other major events tonight too – please check the WSB West Seattle-wide Events calendar for the full list.
We showed you new images like that one last Thursday (WSB coverage here) when Conner Homes brought the “alley vacation” portion of its Junction megaproject (California/Alaska/42nd) back before the Seattle Design Commission. Now, two days before its next Design Review meeting here in West Seattle (6:30 pm Thursday @ High Point Library), that entire planned presentation is available online – download it here (15 MB PDF). Many are images we’ve shown you during and after the past few Design Commission presentations (courtesy of architects Weber Thompson), but there’s lots of additional detail you’ll want to see if you’re interested in this closely scrutinized two-building project at the heart of The Junction. Here’s another image, showing the east building on the Alaska/42nd corner:
We saw them this morning on our way to a story interview – didn’t get a photo, didn’t see them when we headed back the other way, but perhaps they were just on break (we’re checking again now) because we have since received several e-mails (thank you!) asking about them, and that’s why we’re mentioning it: The Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters was protesting another West Seattle worksite, with drums and cowbells in addition to picket signs. This time, it’s the Avalon Center construction site at 35th/Avalon; the signs said they’re protesting Rain City, a contractor firm. Last time they were spotted here, a week and a half ago (WSB coverage here), they were protesting a scaffolding company at an apartment building undergoing renovations south of The Junction. (Update – no sign of them again at 1:45 pm, so we’re concluding at this point they’re done for the day.)
Two West Seattle items in the city’s latest Land Use Information Bulletin: On Alki, immediately south of Cactus on 63th SW, a land-use application has just been filed for two 3-story buildings totaling 7 units. Here’s the notice, which has links for comments to be submitted, through 3/22.
Second: In South Delridge, a decision is in approving a land-use application to build two 4-unit townhouse buildings on a 9,500-square-foot lot at 8605 Delridge (map) that currently holds one house. Read the decision here.
SPEAKING OF TOWNHOUSES: The proposed changes to the Multi-Family Code (zoning), involving townhouse design and more, will be the subject of a briefing this Wednesday, 9:30 am at City Hall, before the City Council’s Planning, Land Use, and Neighborhoods Committee. Here’s the committee agenda (which also includes a rezoning request for some High Point Land); here’s our report from January.
(added 5:12 pm, newly released rendering of proposed western Conner project building at California/Alaska)
That’s Conner Homes boss Charlie Conner speaking briefly to the Seattle Design Commission this afternoon at City Hall, before commissioners’ third review of the “subterranean alley vacation” that’s needed for his project to have one underground parking garage shared by its two proposed 8-story buildings at California/Alaska/42nd. Any kind of “alley vacation” — allowing a land owner to take public property — generally requires the owner/developer to offer some kind of “public benefit” in return; as Conner recapped in his remarks, that’s the part that commissioners hadn’t been so sure about, though they signed off on the design concept during an earlier meeting. The extensive discussions of the previous reviews — which we covered here and here — were not replicated today; project architect Peter Greaves of Weber Thompson recapped a few elements in which he had responded to commissioners’ previously voiced concerns, and the commission gave its approval with few comments/questions. This isn’t the final approval for the alley vacation; SDOT’s alley-vacation specialist Beverly Barnett told WSB after the meeting that her work on it is not yet done, and once her department has a recommendation, it goes to the City Council’s Transportation Committee. The Conner project has an even bigger date before then – next Thursday, 6:30 pm at High Point Library, what could be the final Design Review Board look at the entire project. We have images from today’s presentation, courtesy of Weber Thompson, and will add them later this afternoon.
ADDED 5:06 PM: For starters, here’s the full Conner presentation (5 MB PDF). Also just added the first image from that presentation at the top of this report – a new rendering showing what the western building of the project might look like.
ADDED 6:36 PM: Jump ahead for more images made public today, and a few more details from this afternoon’s Design Commission meeting:Read More
That video by WSB photojournalist Christopher Boffoli captures what happened on the day last November that 4532 42nd SW (map) — a huge house with a lot of history, including time spent as one of West Seattle’s original hospitals — met its demise. The newest date written onto the Southwest Design Review Board‘s calendar is for the next review of the project that will replace it, seen here in a rendering from its last SWDRB review last June:
4532 42nd SW is now the second project on the SWDRB agenda for April 9, 8 pm – location TBD – first one that night, at 6:30 pm, is 2922 SW Avalon (featured here yesterday). But there’s a West Seattle Design Review meeting *before* then, too – a week from tomorrow, at 6:30 pm March 12 at High Point Library, the Conner Homes Junction project gets its next look (and part of that project, its “alley vacation” request, has a third hearing before the Seattle Design Commission at City Hall downtown tomorrow). Side note: We cover the Design Review scheduling, reviews, and votes closely because this is a rare step in the development process, for some projects, when the public gets a chance to speak out at a public hearing. For details on how that works, you can check out the Community Guide to Design Review.
Just scheduled for Design Review (tentatively) on April 9, a proposal by Transitional Resources to build a new four-story, 16-unit mixed-use building on one of the properties it owns along SW Avalon (2988; Google Street View above). We profiled Transitional Resources here last year before their annual spring “garden party” gathering volunteer help for the site where they grow certified-organic herbs and produce; as we described TR in that story, it’s “an organization that provides residential and drop-in services for more than 100 people every month who are working on having productive lives while dealing with mental illness.”
(January 2009 rendering of Conner project alley area, courtesy Weber Thompson)
Will the third time be the charm for Conner Homes as it takes the “alley vacation” portion of its West Seattle Junction megaproject back to the Seattle Design Commission? That group has to sign off on such requests (as do SDOT and the City Council) and already has seen two presentations by Conner’s architects, each time asking for an encore (WSB coverage: January 2009 and November 2008). Now, they’re set to make another presentation at 2 pm this Thursday during the commissioners’ all-day meeting in the Boards and Commissions room at City Hall downtown (map). In this case, the “alley vacation” isn’t the classic case of a developer wanting the actual alley, but instead, requesting the right to use land UNDER the alley, to connect what otherwise would be two separate underground garages for the two buildings at California/Alaska/42nd. (Meantime, as mentioned here last month, the entire two-building project also is set to return to the Southwest Design Review Board on March 12 – 6:30 pm, High Point Library.)
In August 2007, before Pegasus Pizza moved out of 2758 Alki and next door into the former Coyotes/Chez Million/Point/etc. space, there was a proposal for a new ground-floor restaurant/top-floor “offices” building to be built at that site (here’s our original report). Today’s Land Use Information Bulletin has just arrived with word of a different application for 2758 Alki (here’s the notice; here’s the project page) – this time, 3,000+ square feet of “retail” at ground level, two residential units above. There are a few more West Seattle projects in the LUIB (added 1:30 pm): 1111 SW Holden, 1 lot approved for subdivision into 4; 9028 18th SW, 1 lot approved for subdivision into 3; 5980 26th SW, application to subdivide 1 lot into 2.
New tree-removal rules made it through the City Council today – read on for the official news release with details about the restrictions and the potential penalties:Read More
(1254 Alki in the right foreground, 1252 and 1250 to the left)
Last November, we reported on 3 side-by-side houses for sale on Alki Ave in the 1700 block (that listing’s status is “withdrawn”). Today, we thank Shauna for tipping us to a new three-fer listing, in the 1200 block (map): $6 million dollars for what’s billed as a “20-unit condo site” in this CL listing (which also poses the question, “What will the demand be in three years?”). The addresses (linking to online property history) are 1250, 1252, and 1254.
UPDATE ON “TRANSIT-ORIENTED DEVELOPMENT” BILL: We have been keeping an eye on this one as it’s come up in some of the neighborhood-council meetings we cover, though so far its potential effect on West Seattle is unclear: If you’re tracking the “transit-oriented development” bill sponsored by 34th District State Rep. Sharon Nelson, the Daily Weekly reports it failed a committee vote today, though that’s not the final say. It’s also up for discussion tonight at a workshop sponsored by City Councilmember Sally Clark at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Center.
LOCATION SET FOR CONNER PROJECT DESIGN-REVIEW MEETING: We mentioned yesterday that March 12 was tentatively set for the next – and possibly final – Southwest Design Review Board meeting on the Conner Homes Junction project (two mixed-use buildings at California/Alaska/42nd). The word “tentative” is now off the listing, and a location’s been set – that meeting will be 6:30 pm 3/12 at High Point Library. This project’s been of high interest, so we wanted to let you know the update rather than just sneaking it into the WSB West Seattle Events calendar.
The city has set a “tentative” date for the Conner Homes Junction project’s next Southwest Design Review Board meeting – potentially the last one, if the board approves of the proposal: March 12, 6:30 pm, location TBA (added later: the site is now set – High Point Library). This is the two-building project, California/Alaska/42nd with an alley between the two; the image above is one of several we published from the most recent city Design Commission meeting related to the “alley vacation” proposal (because of the underground parking garage) that’s part of the plan. That commission has seen that street-level portion of the project twice since the last Design Review meeting on the entire project (WSB coverage here, from last May; official city report from the same meeting is here), and still has to review it again before SDOT can consider signing off on that component.
As reported here three weeks ago, the Junction megaproject along SW Alaska between 41st and 42nd is continuing to make major progress, with developer Leon Capelouto telling WSB in that January 22nd report that Capco Plaza’s major retail tenants QFC and Office Depot are likely to open before fall, with the newly named Altamira Luxury Apartments opening in November. This morning, another sign of that progress — WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli photographed the project’s crane being taken down:
We also received a note from neighbor Jaina that this work led to some vehicles being towed this morning along 41st, in an area she says got “no parking” signs on short notice – if you had a car parked in the area last night, you may want to check its status sooner rather than later! By the way, the crane is departing after more than 13 months – its arrival was big news on New Year’s Eve 2007, and this WSB report included photographs contributed by multiple sources, including Christopher, who got great shots from the top of nearby Alaska House, like this one:
The crane for Mural, Harbor Properties‘ megaproject on 42nd across from Jefferson Square, was taken down in November (WSB coverage here), and of course we’re not going to see a crane arrive for Fauntleroy Place until its new ownership is finalized (here’s our followup from two weeks ago).
(October 2008 photo by WSB contributing photojournalist Christopher Boffoli)
We’ve now heard back from both Seattle Capital, which owns the Fauntleroy Place (Whole Foods project) site, and BlueStar, which has been its developer, so we have new information following up on today’s report that the project’s been sold – including how long the site is likely to stay idle, and what this all means for BlueStar’s other West Seattle projects – read on:Read More
Thanks to Robert for the link – Times reports Fauntleroy Place project is being sold. May explain why BlueStar hadn’t been returning our phone calls/e-mails (though a rep replied Tuesday he’d call Wednesday, and didn’t). Will add any additional details we find; we have a call out to Seattle Capital (described as one of the current co-owners, though county records still list Fauntleroy Place LLC, with BlueStar‘s address, as site owner). As we reported Tuesday, Whole Foods reiterated its commitment to the West Seattle project (but of course that didn’t necessarily imply the developer would remain the same). ADDED 12:51 PM: King County online records show 8 liens related to the property filed in the past month and a half, with parties including construction and engineering firms. Details of the liens are not available online, just the names and dates. ADDED 1:12 PM: For document-reading fans, here’s a copy of the 10-page lease agreement filed last March, between Whole Foods and Fauntleroy Place LLC. ADDED 1:46 PM: Here’s a document that shows FP transferred the Deed of Trust and other key interests to Seattle Capital last June. 3:49 PM UPDATE: Have just heard back both from Seattle Capital via e-mail and BlueStar by phone, writing a separate update, will post the link in this report when it’s done.
When we reported last week on Prudential Northwest Realty moving out of its California SW location, merging with the same-ownership office at Jefferson Square, we got a new round of questions about the “upzoning” proposal for the area in which the now-empty office sits (which also was invoked in the real-estate listing for the Shamrock apartment building, as we reported days before the Prudential story). That proposal to change the zoning along California between Hanford and Hinds (and a bit further south on the west side of the street) to NC2-40 has been in the works for almost 15 months (we broke the story 11/8/07), and it’s been more than half a year since the city started telling us the recommendation was almost ready. And that’s what the city says now; planner Malli Anderson tells WSB, “I expect to complete a draft of the rezone recommendation this week.” Two of her supervisors then review it, including Bob McElhose, who told us, “When we have agreed with the decision and the final edits, it will go to the Hearing Examiner for the open record pre-decision hearing and recommendation, for which there will be notice. Depending on the review of the draft, the notice could go out as early as this Thursday or possibly next week.” (The city’s Land Use Information Bulletin is published Mondays and Thursdays; you can see the latest one here.) Anderson said the notice will “be sent to those who sent comment letters and e-mails or signed the sign-in sheet at the public meeting.” (That’s the public meeting we covered in late November 2007; a month after that meeting, longtime local businessmen Mike Gain and Roger Cayce talked with us about their vision for the area.) No explanation of why it’s taken so long, although planners told us at one point along the way that it’s not unusual for rezoning requests to take more than a year; since the decision here will trigger hearings and comment periods, it’ll be months before anything’s final.
You may have heard that the Interbay Whole Foods project is now back on track, as officially announced today. Our fellow neighborhood-news-site operators at MagnoliaVoice.com covered the announcement and were kind enough to ask WF about its West Seattle status on our behalf. John Clougher, Pacific Northwest regional manager for Whole Foods, replied: “As far as West Seattle, we are on track and deeply committed to that project. It is a solid commitment and we can’t wait to get going. There is no opening date yet but it usually takes 5-7 months after the construction of the shell is complete and delivered to Whole Foods.” (We’ve had messages out to local developers BlueStar for a few days to find out when construction will be gearing up again at the Fauntleroy Place site, and will let you know when we hear from them.) ADDED 2:11 PM: MagnoliaVoice.com‘s full story on today’s Interbay announcement is now up; see it here.
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