Alki Homestead sold. What’s next? Southwest Seattle Historical Society plans ‘major announcement’ tomorrow morning
The city-landmark Alki Homestead officially has a new owner, according to documents filed with the county, dated today: Fir Lodge LLC has purchased it for $1,250,000. Fir Lodge, of course, is the historic name of the log building at 2717 61st SW. And the LLC is in the name of Dennis Schilling, with whom we talked back in January about his prospective purchase of the Homestead, closed since a fire damaged its interior six years ago.
Schilling is a Mercer Island-based investor who already has a success story in Alki, having purchased and fixed up the once-threatened-with-demolition Shoremont Apartments, just blocks east of the Homestead. His interest in the historic lodge came more than three years after former owner Tom Lin‘s proposed renovation plan went idle following multiple reviews with members of the city’s Landmarks Board, which has jurisdiction over changes to buildings and sites that are under city landmark protection, as this one has been since 1996. Schilling has been talking with the Landmarks Board and other city reps about his hopes of renovating the building and possibly building a few apartments on part of its current parking lot; we were there as he talked with the board’s Architectural Review Committee in late January.
New ownership is only a first step into the Homestead’s future, but we expect to find out much more about what’s next for it tomorrow morning, as the Southwest Seattle Historical Society – which has been working for years to save the Homestead – has announced a media briefing with “a major announcement” at 9 am, and we’ll be there. SWSHS has many ties to the Homestead/Fir Lodge, not the least of which is the fact that its headquarters building, the Log House Museum a half block away, was its carriage house decades ago.
ADDED SATURDAY MORNING: The official news release is on the Log House Museum site; we’re at the LHM news conference where the sale and restoration plan are being officially announced.
Congrats! Madison student Jack Crowley heads to state Geo Bee
(Photo courtesy Sam Crowley)
Congratulations to Madison Middle School seventh grader Jack Crowley, who is headed to the Washington State Geographic Bee! It’s the geography version of a spelling bee, and Jack’s trip is hard-won, after months of competition at school, according to his mom Sam Crowley. The state-level competition happens two weeks from today (Friday, March 27) at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma. Competitors are in grades four through eight; each state and U.S. territory will send its winner to the national competition in May at National Geographic Society headquarters in Washington, D.C. Good luck, Jack!
West Seattle food notes: Pagliacci expands delivery zone; Top Pot opens; St. Patrick’s Day specials
Dig into these West Seattle food notes/updates:
PAGLIACCI EXPANDS DELIVERY ZONE, GETS READY TO START JUNCTION EXPANSION: Next year marks 20 years since Pagliacci Pizza added a “delivery kitchen” in West Seattle. But it’s never delivered to all of WS. If you’ve been reading WSB since before we became a news publication, you might remember a vigorous discussion of Pagliacci’s delivery zone dating back to early 2007. 
With the issue still out there, when we reported back in December on their plan to expand the Junction location, adding seating and slices, we asked about delivery-zone expansion. They weren’t sure at the time, but now they have announced they’re heading further into the south and northeast areas of WS. Pagliacci’s Rebekah Wolf sent this to us:
We’re happy to announce that our delivery zone coverage has expanded. We are now delivering to SW Thistle Street, from 28th Avenue SW to Fauntleroy Way SW. Also, we are now delivering to the Pigeon Point neighborhood, which goes as far east as 19th Avenue SW, between SW Charlestown Street and SW Genesee Street.
The note also said the expansion into the space next door will start April 1st and should be complete by mid-June; the delivery kitchen will stay open during the work. Meantime, Lika Love, the boutique that’s temporarily been in the space next door since Clementine’s moved to Pioneer Square, is having a farewell party/sale 5-8 pm on March 28th.
TOP POT DOUGHNUTS NOW OPEN: As reported here earlier in the week, today is grand-opening day for Top Pot Doughnuts on Alki, at 2758 Alki SW in a space that was completed three-plus years ago but hasn’t had a tenant until now. We stopped by and found a crowd:
Hours and menu notes are in our report from Wednesday.
ST. PATRICK’S DAY: Jenny at The Bridge sends word they’re having specials: “Tuesday night, we are celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with Jon the Bagpiper coming by at 7 pm to play for us as well as an Irish themed fresh sheet throughout the month of March featuring Beet Salad, Irish Stew and Reubens!” Any other local restaurants with special menus for the wearin’ of the green? Let us know and we’ll add them – editor@westseattleblog.com – thanks!
Arbor Heights Elementary School project update: Winning bidder; restart date
(WSB photo, taken this week, looking southwest across the AHES site)
Someone asked us why the Arbor Heights Elementary rebuild site is idle. That’s by design – as reported several times before, this was intended to be a two-phase project, with demolition/site prep in the first phase, and then a stopdown while the full construction project went out to bid. We checked in with Seattle Public Schools today and confirmed that Bayley Construction is the winning bidder, for $25.4 million; the contract is expected to be awarded within a few weeks, likely going to the School Board on April 1st. If all goes as planned, work at the site is expected to (re)start in early May, though the district tells us neighbors might see some activity – such as “trailer mobilization” – before then. The new school is expected to open in fall of 2016; AH continues using part of the Boren Building as its temporary site until then.
The General Store Seattle: New WSB sponsor; sale this weekend!
Today we’re welcoming The General Store Seattle as a new WSB sponsor. New local sponsors get the chance to let you know what they’re all about:
The General Store Seattle focuses exclusively on US-made, locally produced items that are unique and hand-picked with an eye for quality, says proprietor Claire E. Jones (at right). “Our customers continually praise the high quality of our products and they love that their money is going directly back into their communities. They seek us out because they know they can find one-of-a-kind items that more than replace the lower-quality products found at big box retail chains.”
Claire says The General Store Seattle is inspired by the traditional general stores – some clothes, some household goods, some food-related items, all locally sourced, with her suppliers at most a few hours away from Seattle. Sourcing locally can get expensive sometimes, but Claire works to do the research necessary for you to be able to shop with The General Store Seattle and find merchandise at fair prices.
This weekend, The General Store Seattle has a special sale – 5% of your purchase will be donated to the charity of your choice. Go here to get full details.
The General Store Seattle is open Wednesdays-Sundays, 10 am-7 pm, on the street level at 3400 Harbor SW (map) – and you can shop any time via the store’s website, at thegeneralstoreseattle.com.
We thank The General Store Seattle for sponsoring independent, community-collaborative neighborhood news via WSB; find our current sponsor team listed in directory format here, and find info on joining the team by going here.
Terminal 5 lease fight: 1st court hearing on environmental coalition’s lawsuit; no ruling today
Just concluded in the courtroom of King County Superior Court Judge Mariane Spearman: The first hearing related to the environmental coalition lawsuit challenging the Port of Seattle‘s lease with Foss Maritime for part of West Seattle’s Terminal 5, with the expectation that some of the activity there will involve Shell’s Arctic-drilling fleet. Bottom line: Judge Spearman did not make a ruling today, saying she wants to read some of the case-law cited. The port’s major argument is that they’re not the ones that should be challenged relating to the Shoreline Management Act – that the city is the enforcer of that act on shoreline within city limits, and it’s the one that the port should be taking to court. The coalition contends that while the port has a permit to use Terminal 5 as a cargo terminal, that’s not really the kind of use that will be involved in the Foss/Shell use, and so a new environmental use is warranted. They also had hoped today to have the court order Foss to say when it expects Shell vessels to start arriving; Foss has not yet released any such information.
Here’s what happened at 35th SW safety-options meeting #2
By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor
Two days after SDOT debuted the 35th SW safety-design options (WSB coverage here), an afternoon encore presentation filled the upstairs meeting room at Southwest Branch Library.
While the information presented by SDOT’s Jim Curtin on Thursday afternoon was the same – most of it in this slide deck – the reaction and questions were not. And that wasn’t surprising, since Curtin asked for a show of hands by those who had already heard something about the proposals.
As we listened to the presentation a second time, different facts jumped out, beyond the big ones (five people killed and more than 1,000 crashes in a decade):
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2 more days to get nominations in for this year’s Westside Awards
Sunday (March 15th) is the deadline for you to get nominations in for this year’s Westside Awards, to be presented by the West Seattle Chamber of Commerce on April 2nd. You do NOT have to be a Chamber member to make a nomination or to be nominated. From the announcement first published here last month:
Westside Business of the Year – This nominee has been in business at least 3 years and demonstrated business excellence and success.
Westside Emerging Business – This nominee has been in business for less than 3 years but is meeting the challenges of a growing business through leadership.
Westside Not-For-Profit of the Year – This nominee Not-for-Profit is making our community a better place to live while contributing to community benefit through their mission.
Westsider of the Year – This nominee is making a lasting impact on our community and the lives of or is an up-and-coming community role model.
Make a nomination online through the Westside Awards Nomination Form – a different one for each category – and again, Sunday’s the deadline, so do it before the weekend’s out! Here’s our coverage of last year’s ceremony. You can buy your ticket(s) for this year’s event online – use the “register now” link on this page.
TRAFFIC/TRANSIT TODAY: Friday on the roads & trails
(Four WS-relevant views; more cams on the WSB Traffic page)
All’s well on the roads and trails so far as we’re seeing and hearing. And the forecast still says this will be even more spring-like than Thursday.
Two notes:
DELRIDGE/ORCHARD/DUMAR SPU WORK: Seattle Public Utilities says the “intermittent 15-minute full closures on SW Orchard St. will be wrapping up this week as planned. Moving forward, traffic will occasionally be stopped momentarily to let trucks in and out, but we do not anticipate significant delays.” The westbound lane on Orchard east of Delridge will stay closed 7:30 am-4 pm seven days a week through the end of April, with a flagger to help you get around that.
UPCOMING SOUTH PARK BRIDGE, ALASKAN WAY VIADUCT CLOSURES: If you missed this update published Thursday – two weeks of early-early-morning closures are ahead for the South Park Bridge, and we have more details of the late-March Highway 99 closure.
8:03 AM: Port-truck traffic is backing up on Marginal again today, according to Helga in comments, plus what we’re hearing via the scanner.
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