Buildings on the block

New listing on the booming south end of Morgan Junction: 7025 California, currently home to Alki Mortgage, just steps from Caffe Ladro and Gatewood Elementary. Billed as “highly desirable multi-use opportunity”: $1.7 million. One more listing of note has been up a few weeks but we hadn’t gotten around to mentioning it: 9003-9007 35th, home to On Safari Foods and a martial-arts studio (though we will always remember it fondly as the ex-home of Bird on a Wire till that shop moved around the corner), $795,000.

Sage October 12, 2007 (9:49 am)

Glad to see it looks like Alki Mortgage will be leaving — they always gave me a sleezy sleezy impression. (Also a waste to have a low-traffic business on what could be a nice little walkable retail strip.) The #s they advertised on their sandwich board just didn’t compute — the interest rate changes sometimes, but the payment amount doesn’t. And the payment amount is also ridiculously, unbelievably. What kind of amortization table are they using over there?

Elizabeth October 12, 2007 (9:52 am)

You may already know this, but Bird on a Wire is still there; it just moved around the corner on Henderson. Great place!

chas redmond October 12, 2007 (11:44 am)

What’s odd is that the Alki Mortgage building isn’t that old – it occupies what was (along with the townhouses adjacent to it) the former “parking lot” for Ladro.

Also, I certainly hope On Safari finds a new place locally. I don’t go there often, but they make the absolutely best custom pies (you have to order them) and each year for the past four years I’ve had an On Safari home-baked apple and pumpkin pie for both Thanksgiving and for Christmas. The pies are 14 inches in diameter and deep – the pumpkin is about 2.5 inches and the apple is awesome – a 5 inch crown in the middle. Oh, really the best crust – makes Shoefly pies seem somewhat ordinary by comparison. Slightly over twenty bucks per pie, btw.

WSB October 12, 2007 (12:16 pm)

Chas – the building itself actually is almost a century old – we have a historic photo of it somewhere – it was renovated dramatically in 2005 as the listing notes, but the building itself was always there. May have been smaller, can’t quite recall. The townhouse/condo building between it and Ladro, though, definitely was a parking lot until a few years ago. Elizabeth – we’ll add the part about Bird on a Wire – we linked to its website and by that thought we were inferring that we knew it was still around, but you know, we shouldn’t make that assumption. We liked the old location better because of its truly homey feel but they’re good peeps wherever they are and whatever they’re up to. We don’t get to the new one much because we changed our walking route.

Flowerpetal October 12, 2007 (1:41 pm)

This is the first time I have ever read anything (positive or negative) about On Safari. I live in that neighborhood and have never found the store open when I was walking by. Guess I better check it out quickly.

STB October 12, 2007 (3:07 pm)

I believe On Safari mostly does catering. They cater the lunchroom in an office building near mine in South Lake Union and I can attest the food is delicious. Also had their food at a party once and that was excellent too. Everything including the salad dressings are made from scratch.

chas redmond October 12, 2007 (5:21 pm)

I checked in with the On Safari crowd over lunch and, yes, they know the building is on the block. According to a few that I spoke with there the owner thinks he/she can get a mid-rise condo in the area behind the building but is, apparently, asking a rather hefty price. On Safari hopes to remain in the area and are hoping things work out for them at that location. Yes, On Safari is a catering outfit and only makes the pies on special order, but it’s worth the special order because their goods are quality goods, made by people who love working there and who take great pride in the food the produce. They have a website – onsafarifoods dot com – where they tell you what they can do and what their specialties are.

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