Admiral Safeway rebuild details: Design Review meeting set

| Development | West Seattle news

Just added today to the city’s Design Review/Upcoming schedule: The September 11th meeting of the Southwest Design Review Board now includes the first “early design guidance” session for the proposal to redevelop the Admiral Safeway site. This has been under discussion for a while, as we first reported last February (then in April, this WSB post asked for your thoughts about the site); the city’s official project page includes this overview of what’s being proposed:

Design review, early design guidance meeting for two new buildings; a one story, 58,750 sq.ft. grocery store (Safeway) with a four story, 34-unit residential structure attached and a one story, 7,000 sq.ft. retail building. Parking for 227 vehicles to be located on the roof and at grade. Project will require alley vacations and contract rezone. Existing 32,000 sq.ft. grocery store to be demolished.

The architects on the project page are Seattle-based Fuller-Sears; you can see some of their work at their website. The design-review meeting is set for 8 pm Sept. 11 at a TBA location in West Seattle; we’d mentioned earlier that the Spring Hill mixed-use building south of The Junction (5020 California) was already on the agenda that night (6:30 pm). We’ve got a message out to Safeway to see if any renderings for this proposal are available yet.

KT August 4, 2008 (3:58 pm)

The faster they get this project done the faster we will be relieved of this dump!

JanS August 4, 2008 (4:19 pm)

KT, I kinda agree…this is definitely going to be interesting. I live across the street (east) of “this dump”…definitely a priority on my schedule to go to the DRB meeting.

Thanks, TR, for the information…

Andrew August 4, 2008 (6:30 pm)

Hey KT- If you want to be relieved of “this dump”, you should move away. This Safeway has been in Admiral for a very long time and is loved by many people. I’ve been shopping there for 40 years and am looking forward to a new and improved Safeway but in the meantime, I will continue to shop at this beloved store.

MrJT August 4, 2008 (6:47 pm)

Much like the Benbow, you’d have to grow up with it to love it…

SarahScoot August 4, 2008 (7:05 pm)

Hmm loyalty and nostalgia for a Safeway? That’s a new one to me :-)

sa August 4, 2008 (7:22 pm)

The best thing Safeway could do for the community is to put a Trader Joes in its place.

rowboat August 4, 2008 (8:12 pm)

Trader Joe’s – would love one in WS!
I hope they do a better job at the Admiral Safeway then they did at Jefferson Square. There’s hardly any food product at Jeff. Sq.and it’s hard to find what you need. Never an employee around when you need one. I only shop there now because of my desire to cut back on my grocery bill.

alkikmac August 4, 2008 (8:16 pm)

According to a trusted former employee, admiral safeway makes so much money, it was the cash-cow for all the other redesigns in the Seattle area. It’s one of the last to be upgraded because of this.

Alki Res. August 4, 2008 (9:48 pm)

You can add all the mood lighting you want but if the meat still tastes like shoe leather… what difference does it make???

Forest August 4, 2008 (11:36 pm)

Design unseen, I suggest (1) the proposed roof parking gets moved underground, and (2) the housing portion of the project gets its own dedicated block of streetfront with an inviting sidewalk character and a distinctly pedestrian main entry built to the sidewalk of Lander Street, with the building facade facing Hiawatha Park, not the generic and dreary Hiawatha School building on California Avenue or, God forbid, the surface parking for Safeway shoppers and freight deliveries.

Forest August 4, 2008 (11:37 pm)

Oops, make that Lafayette School building.

JanS August 5, 2008 (12:26 am)

Forest…I think the underground parking idea is a good one. As I posted earlier, I live across the street from Admiral Safeway (to the east – a 2nd floor apartment), and I certainly don’t want my view every day to be cars circling. Having said that, I know it will be what it will be. In the summer I have trees to block any view of the store, in winter I get to watch sunsets over the roof of the store (really romantic – lol) I like the convenience of having the store within walking distance, and I suppose will just have to make do with PCC and Met Market when the construction happens.

If I was going to live there, I’d enjoy having a view of Hiawatha, too…much better than of Calif. Ave. , or, heaven forbid, Jack in the Box, with all it’s burger odors.

It’ll be interesting to see what they do with the 42nd Ave.SW side…where I live. Am definitely not looking forward to the construction phase, with it’s noise, etc. Could be a bit of a cash cow…hmm…construction workers need massage, don’t they? lol…

Pelicans August 5, 2008 (10:25 am)

SaraScoot-Yes, believe it or not, it’s possible to be attached to something that verges on ugly. I’ve only been here 10 years (14 if you count the 80’s), but I am already nostalgic about the Admiral Safeway. That wouldn’t really be if not for the people who work there. I’ve seen some of those kids grow up, sort of. Advance from bag boys and girls to cashiers, etc., while going to college at the same time. At very few other places in town do people call me by name (remember it, I mean.) Maybe the prices and quality sometimes aren’t the best, but that’s why I buy meat and other things at Fred Meyer, Metro or PCC. Jans-I hope the new design is something we all can live with, but it sounds as if it’ll just add to the increasing density of WS. I hope Safeway has jobs available at their other stores for their Admiral people during construction. BTW, the store down in Burien at 1st Ave South and 154th (?) is pretty nice and well stocked.

credmond September 18, 2008 (12:44 pm)

Perhaps I’m the only one who has gotten over the Caesar Chavez Safeway era – I avoided Safeway for a decade while the California (Oakland) company went through some changes in the way it treated its employees. It’s still not the best but is way better than it used to be. I shop at all the local food markets (save Albertsons and Fred Meyer – just happen to not like their house brands) and use Safeway for their own label goods (the Select brand is very good and about half the price of a comparable national brand – example – their Pecan Sandies are indistinguishable from Keebler and are – half the price)
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That being said, I totally agree the JeffSquare store sucks. It has about a third of what the Roxbury store has. The staff are fine at all the stores. Admiral Safeway I use occasionally when I’m at Met or PCC because canned kidney beans are canned kidney beans and PCC and Met charge much more for the house brand than Safeway does. Shop for particular items which each store has which make that item a good buy. I hit up Costco, the Safeway on Roxbury, the Thriftway, the Met and PCC all in a bi-weekly grocery run – make a loop around the town and generally read the ads so I’ll know what’s a bargain at which store. I think we’re pretty fortunate here in WS to have the variety of grocery places we do – including the Farmers Market (yeah, bell peppers really ARE cheaper at the FM).

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