‘The Hole’ court settlement: More details emerge

(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).

10 Replies to "'The Hole' court settlement: More details emerge"

  • Recall McGinn June 22, 2011 (3:06 pm)

    I absolutely loathe “developers” who ruin communities. Their greed was bigger than their bank accounts and West Seattle is now left with a giant hole in the ground where businesses once operated.

  • Robin Levin June 22, 2011 (3:54 pm)

    I sure wish we could have our fabric store and our auto parts store back……

  • Westgirl June 22, 2011 (4:37 pm)

    I live on the same block as “the hole” not the prettiest scenery to look at! I wish they would hurry up and start building something!

  • Alki Area June 22, 2011 (7:49 pm)

    Look, I completely understand the economy tanked and the project which was JUST starting got cancelled. That I don’t have a problem with. The frustration is with HOW long it took JUST TO SIMPLY decide who owns the !#@$& property. These real estate deals are so phoney, created with so many fly-by-night limited partnerships and parties that it takes multiple lawsuits and a 2 years just to decide who actually OWNS the dang property and who put money in and owes who. That’s ridiculous. It shouldn’t take more than a few weeks, 2 or 3 months at MOST for all parties to come forward with their documents and someone to be able to prove THEY own the thing, and who owes who. If it takes years, it’s more of a scam than a real estate deal.

  • west seattle person June 22, 2011 (10:11 pm)

    Just DO something for the sake of WS. This region has a bad habit of processing things to death. Please, someone, just fix this. This is an eyesore of ginormous proportion on the entry to our WS province. I miss the fabric store almost as much as I loath that awful corner of NOTHING!! (Yucky post-Huling included!) Geez folks, north Aurora looks better than this area!!

  • redblack June 23, 2011 (6:38 am)

    west seattle person: ouch.
    .
    not by a long stretch, imho, does the corner of 39th/alaska/fauntleroy look as bad as the recently-closed and colorfully spray-painted thunderbird flop house/motel.
    .
    although the commercial blight is getting out of hand: the hertz building, one more big huling building to go, acres of empty parking lot, the 76 station, the hole…
    ,
    ugly, yes, but at least it’s not crackheads and hookers.

  • JAT June 23, 2011 (9:34 am)

    Mike McGinn rocks! He’s pro-neighborhood and developer-agnostic. We need to face some truths we don’t want to and some of them involve the sustainability of rampant development and living with our (community’s) means. McGinn’s just trying to get us on the clue-bus.

    Off topic? Maybe, but some commenters’ names are inherently political, and given the paradoxical nature of their espoused views – I think it becomes woth saying: I like Mike!

  • godofthebasement June 23, 2011 (11:20 am)

    redblack, I live a block from there, believe me there are indeed crackheads and hookers around, exactly like Aurora. The Triange is desperately in need of help; I just hope this settlement gets the ball rolling.

  • koochman June 23, 2011 (7:47 pm)

    You live in a city. Get real folks this is not Mayberry. The more dense the population, the more businesses can be sustained. I crack up when the 60 pair of shoes, Land Rover driving green driven ladies talk the BS …. the denser the population, the fewer s/f you occupy, the greener you are. If we are to have any notion of sustainable, green development, more bodies in less space, closer to work, sewer plants, etc…is the answer. Raise the height limits to 500 feet, and pack em in I say.

  • redblack June 25, 2011 (8:56 am)

    godofthebasement: i live 3 blocks from there, and i’ve never seen prostitution or soliciting. and at least the buildings aren’t being tagged.
    .
    drugs and booze and homeless kids? yes. they seem to circumnavigate the big triangle: fauntleroy, california, alaska.
    .
    kooch: let’s not get hyperbolic here. we’re a ways away from soylent green density.
    .
    but if it does get that bad, we had better figure out a way to expand, repair, and replace sewer, water, gas, and electric service before we go stackin’ ’em 500 feet high.
    .
    attempting to force 100 times intended capacity on a 100-year-old sewer system wouldn’t be pretty.

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