The biggest news at last night’s North Delridge Neighborhood Council meeting came from guests: Delridge Neighborhoods Development Association reps told the council they may have to sell the three DNDA-owned units in Brandon Court because they won’t be able to make the next mortgage payment. (They’re already listed.) One of those units is empty – DNDA itself vacated last year, consolidating its offices in Youngstown Cultural Arts Center a mile away – and the other one is about to be vacated by the City of Seattle, moving its Neighborhood Service Center to the former Southwest Community Center (as finalized in last month’s budget vote). DNDA’s Patty Grossman and board chair Willard Brown told NDNC – meeting in the Delridge Library, near the units under discussion – that they were hoping to convince the city to change its mind, and that they believed they were getting at least a few months reprieve.
However, our followup conversation with the city today indicates otherwise. More on this, and other topics from the NDNC meeting, ahead:
Brown opened the DNDA’s spot on the agenda by telling the council that the nonprofit has “turned the corner” and is now profitable and will finish the current year “in the black.” He noted that is the case even though DNDA’s challenges in recent years have included funding – “public funding is almost nonexistent; private funding has become a larger and larger portion of the mix but … that source of revenue has also dried up fairly dramatically.” He says the housing at Youngstown “is viable,” though the component of its mission that has to do with youth arts “is not as viable as it once was” – he described “a shift” in which partner organizations are taking on more of a responsibility for that, right now – but its “physical plant” has become “more attractive” to local performing-arts groups. “Our goal is to re-emerge stronger with a stronger tie to the art community,” he declared, “as well as a strong connection to youth in the community.” But – “We’re going to need help to get there, and we need help now from all of you,” in the form of board openings that need to be filled.
Then he and Grossman got to the point of the vacant retail space in Brandon Court. He said the impending DESC homeless-housing project nearby has dissuaded prospective lessees for the spaces that are now empty, after the departure of DNDA and the impending departure of the city Neighborhood Service Center. “We have expressed our interest that the city remain in place so that this site remains viable … keep(ing) ‘Little City Hall’ open and viable,” Brown said. Chiming in, Patty Grossman said, “We just found out a couple weeks ago that the noose around our neck is a little tight and it was tightened by the city unintentionally.” She explained the three units owned by DNDA – one has a child-care operation.
Grossman said prospective tenants were almost about to engage in “a bidding war” until the impending, nearby DESC homeless-housing project became known, and that there was an added complication – prospective tenants were interested at a rate that wasn’t sustainable ($12/square foot). They’ve put their space up on the market, she said. “We’ve never been delinquent on our mortgage before. … (but) We can’t pay them right now.” She says a temporary tenant, a software company, is about to sign a six-month lease, but, Brown added, “we’re not sure that’s the kind of tenant that the community wants,” to stimulate economic growth in the area.
How have they marketed the space? NDNC co-chair Amanda Leonard asked. Brown indicated they had been more reactive than proactive. He added that “The city leaving is a double whammy” – they have been paying an amount of rent that has helped keep the project afloat. “Their leaving is a huge, huge setback for us.” (We asked the city today how much they paid. Answer: $2647/month rent plus $872/month for common-area maintenance. The space is indeed listed for lease at less than that.)
A DESC employee who has been attending NDNC meetings for a while suggested to DNDA that they try to buy some time because the project may not seem so negative to prospective tenants once it’s up and running. Grossman said they tried to point that out to prospective tenants, who “just didn’t want to deal with it.” Brown said they will be meeting with DESC boss Bill Hobson to enlist his help in getting the spaces lease.
Grossman reiterated that while they felt they had turned DNDA around in the past six months – covering the organization’s costs “without philanthropic (help) – this “unpleasant surprise” came up in the past two weeks and “couldn’t have come at a worse time.” She also said that the city might be delaying its departure from Brandon Court till July to help them buy time.
However, we contacted the city today, and spokesperson Katherine Schubert-Knapp told us:
Our goal is still to open the Southwest Neighborhood Service Center inside the Southwest Teen Life Center on Southwest Thistle Street in early April. We may not hit the April 2 opening date as originally planned. There are a lot of moving parts and it’s taking a bit longer to prepare our space then we had initially planned on. In the meantime, because our lease at the Delridge site expires at the end of March, we’ve arranged to rent the space from month-to-month so that we have a place to stay until our new spot is ready for us. If all goes as planned, we should be out of the Delridge location by the end of April. We don’t anticipate renting the space beyond April.
BRANDON NODE VISIONING: On February 29th, at Martin’s Way (Delridge/Findlay, as profiled here last month), NDNC will have an open house about the Brandon Node – the commercial area centered on Delridge/Brandon/Findlay – to which the community is invited. Here’s the flyer:

Co-chair Parie Hines also said there’s a new effort under way to bring a grocery store to Delridge and that a meeting NDNC leaders had attended earlier Monday – organized by the King County Food and Fitness Initiative, with a variety of other organizations participating – had mentioned the Brandon Court space as a possibility – perhaps something like a pickup spot for groceries that would be ordered online.
DESC ADVISORY GROUP: Vonetta Mangaoang briefed the group on the advisory committee’s formation. She’ll be coordinating outreach activities. Next Tuesday is the first major community meeting – 6:30 pm February 21st, as announced here – at which the committee will “take testimony from whomever shows up.” For one, she says, it’s intended to correct “missed opportunities” for public input in the past, and it’s also intended to “establish what the concerns of the community are, so that we can have conversations about them.”
OTHER DESC PROJECT NOTES: Mangaoang reminded all that the city has extended the comment period by two weeks and also says the city has agreed to a public meeting discussing and reviewing how the environmental-impact process – also a subject of public comment – plays into this project. (And those “environmental impacts” don’t just include the ecological impacts you might imagine, but also traffic, noise, and other components.)
GATHERING OF NEIGHBORS: Michael Taylor-Judd was at the meeting to pitch NDNC on helping out with the upcoming event, April 21st at Chief Sealth International High School. More information here.
WALKING TOUR BRINGS RESULTS: Jake Vanderplas recapped the recent Delridge walking tour including city reps, saying it had led to some trouble spots getting taken care of. “Three or four things that were pointed out on that tour have been addressed already … for example, the path between Andover and Chelan has been smoothed out and repaved.” (More info here.) A speed-limit sign in the area has been moved; sidewalks have been cleared; He’s drafting a “thank-you letter” for Councilmember Tom Rasmussen, which also will follow up on what remains to be done.
North Delridge Neighborhood Council meets the second Monday of each month, 6:30 pm, usually in the Delridge Library, but check their very busy, frequently updated website at ndnc.org for the latest on meeting location/agenda.
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