(WSB photo of ‘The Hole,’ taken last month)
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
Some details remain elusive, but new court documents reveal some of what’s in the settlement that canceled plans for another trial in the longrunning legal fight over the stalled West Seattle development site dubbed “The Hole” (fully excavated for a parking garage between a once-planned Whole Foods/Hancock Fabrics/apartment building, then fenced off when it became clear things had fallen apart and gone to court).
To recap: We first reported news of a settlement on June 3rd. No one would comment on its details. Last week, King County Superior Court Judge Susan Craighead‘s bailiff Jennie Cowan told WSB they were expecting some kind of documents to be filed in the ensuing week or so – and bit by bit, that is now happening.
First document in, dated June 11th, confirms that Aero Construction says it’s been fully paid for the judgment that was part of last fall’s first verdict, in which Judge Craighead ruled that construction companies Aero and Ledcor had “lien priority.”
The second document reveals even more about where things stand: Dated this past Monday, it says everyone in the case has agreed to dismiss the appeal filed after last fall’s verdict and has agreed to strike the looming trial date for the next part of the case. It also says:
The only remaining issues to be addressed by the Superior Court in this matter are those concerning the issuance of a new Order for Sale for the purposes of a judicial sheriff’s sale of the subject property located at 3922 SW Alaska … as requested by (3922 SW Alaska LLC)…
The $7.7 million bond that 3922 SW Alaska LLC – an entity (named after the site’s street address) associated with the owner of Madison Development – had put up in order to delay a previously set foreclosure-sale date, is now being given back to them, according to the new court documents.
So what happens next? We had previously sought comment from a consulting firm that had in the past spoken for 3922 SW Alaska LLC; they acknowledged our request but that’s all we heard back. So now that this is filed, we’re trying again.
3922 SW Alaska LLC, which holds the note to the site, had been seeking its own foreclosure sale so that it could proceed with developing the site, as we had reported in February, but the judge didn’t go along with that plan, and said the appeal of the November ruling was the best hope for settling the site’s fate. Now that appeal is dropped, and there’s nothing left in the case but awaiting a sale date – to see if that indeed means 3922 SW Alaska LLC is who will go ahead with developing the site, and what they’ll do with it.
By the way, an anniversary passed unnoted 10 days ago – three years since the ceremonial groundbreaking at the site then known as Fauntleroy Place (an event that itself became an issue at one point in the trial, as key figures argued over what work had been done and why).
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