BIZNOTE: Another West Seattle corner store closing

| Highland Park | West Seattle businesses | West Seattle news

Thanks for the tips. Country Deli-Grocery at 7789 Highland Park Way is closing at the end of the month. The property is for sale – both the store and the house behind it; no buyer set but the store is closing anyway. Asking price is $380,000 for the store, $780,000 if you want the house too. Highland Park Way is one of the West Seattle arterials where redevelopment is increasing, and the listing for this property says, “Rare opportunity to develop a mixed rental property – retail shop and apartments above, Neighborhood Commercial zoning (NC 1).”

E November 20, 2018 (3:56 pm)

That store owner is super nice. Sad to see it go. But also secretly hoping it’s zoned to have a small dive bar or something put in there. That’s the one thing our neighborhood is really lacking.

KayK November 20, 2018 (5:13 pm)

Bummer for our little corner of walkability. Not very excited about having to use the 7/11 Seamart options. Planning to drop over and give best wishes to the current owners who have really worked hard making a go of it.

KD November 20, 2018 (6:25 pm)

Sad also. I’ve patronized for my 27 yrs. living in the neighborhood. The owner Mr. Lee and his wife (owners, past merchants) were funny and nice. Current merchant Howard and wife.. Thankyou! Another neighbor said the store has been there more than 40 yrs. at least. Anyone know how long the store HAS been there? Any previous incarnations before it was the ‘Country Deli’ store? (gooood sandwiches!) Wonder when it was built and what businesses were in it before. My bet is both the store and house be bought and both parcels be turned into the exact same boxy townhouses and apts. that are being built on surrounding blocks. ☹️

miws November 20, 2018 (7:21 pm)

KD, according to King County Parcel Viewer, the store was built in 1922. — Mike
- AdmiralGirl November 20, 2018 (9:32 pm)
  
  Are there any old photos of the original (1922+) store available?

Bob F Forrest November 20, 2018 (9:18 pm)

Mom & Pop businesses can’t afford the taxes, regulation, paperwork and litigation imposed by the new socialist Seattle. This location will be taken by a faceless organization that can afford to either fight or pay off our demosocialist rulers.

Bizmun November 20, 2018 (11:24 pm)

You nailed it grampa Bob, the city is lined with small business failure after failure. Nothing but empty buildings and no one wants to live here.

Shane Donovan November 21, 2018 (7:35 am)

Let’sBuy the corner store

KayK November 21, 2018 (8:48 am)

If they can crowdsource C+P Coffee maybe we HP residents can grab this property!!

PangolinPie November 21, 2018 (8:22 am)

This is sad; the folks who own it and work there are so nice, and they’ve saved my butt a few times when I needed an emergency purchase and didn’t want to drive all the way to Safeway.

Charlie November 21, 2018 (9:27 am)

This property has been on the market since the Spring, when I first tipped off the WSB to it. I also discussed it at the April HPAC meeting with Councilmember Herbold in the context of rezoning the residential lot behind the store to allow for more flexibility in the kinds of properties that can be built there (I.e. affordable multi-family residential with ground floor commercial). There are a few other neighborhood commercial-zoned properties in the Highland Park neighborhood for sale right now that are at risk of being lost to housing-only development. I have been in contact with developers to try to bring some investment to the neighborhood to allow affordable commercial space for small businesses to start up, but to no avail. It simply has not penciled out. If anyone is interested in investing in Highland Park please reach out to the Highland Park Action Committee. It is a great opportunity with its proximiyy to the White Center commercial area.

WSB November 21, 2018 (10:12 am)

We do our best but somehow that fell through the cracks. I was very ill for a while in late April/early May and missed some meetings we otherwise do our best not to miss, including April HPAC. The listing didn’t show on Commercial MLS or I would have seen it at some point afterward during one of my regular checks of that site. (I can’t even find it on the listing company’s own website!) Anyway, sorry to drop the ball then, but someone called us the other day and said the store is closing, and off we went. – TR

KD November 21, 2018 (1:07 pm)

If someone or groups can afford the store lot, then the Beautiful Falcon Ridge horse property a few blocks east should be purchased (and SAVED first!) sadly, Jean lost her husband this week, so dale might be even more rushed (or saved? 💗🐾🐾💗🐴). Regarding the C&P Coffee house.. we are a bit different income bracket over here in Beautiful Highland Park. The $$ that came in from folks living around and across Fauntleroy, Lincoln Park and California area properties are a bit more able to share their income. $💗$ Benefactor.. swoop in and save Falcon Ridge and Country Deli!!!

KD November 21, 2018 (5:36 pm)

WSBlog… oh! don’t apologize for being ill, you are there more than 24/7 for all of us anyways, please allow time to get better. Btw, any readers that know how to archive and mine for old timey photos of the store at 9th. & Kenyon? Would love to see what it was and what it looked like before Country Deli. (back to 1922?!!)

aa November 22, 2018 (2:03 pm)

KD- do you actually know who contributed to C &P? Making assumptions about the financial affluence of the areas you mentioned and not having any proof that those people are the ones who contributed, is just as annoying in my opinion as when people make assumptions about the residents of High Point.

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