BIZNOTE: Morning Star Mini-Mart closing

| Highland Park | West Seattle businesses | West Seattle news

Thanks for the tip: Highland Park’s Morning Star Mini-Mart (8855 9th SW) is closing. We stopped by this morning to confirm, and learned that Friday is the store’s last day. Its famous barbecue is no longer available – the equipment’s already dismantled. The store is closing because the property has been sold. The listing says it’s been up for sale for two months, asking price $1.5 million, and that a sale is pending. The 13,000-square-foot site is zoned for potential 4-story mixed-use; store staff has heard that “offices” are on the way, but no redevelopment permits are on file so far. The listing also notes the site’s held a store for more than 30 years.

Jeepney October 12, 2021 (2:41 pm)

Always sad to see the old “mom & pop” stores go away.

KD October 12, 2021 (2:43 pm)

I will bet a $1,000 that the “offices” are just a storage facility. I sure hope I’m wrong.

BlairJ October 12, 2021 (7:27 pm)

According to the city zoning map, that property is zoned “NC1-40 (M)”. A description of “NC1” is at http://www.seattle.gov/Documents/Departments/SDCI/Codes/CommercialZoningSummary.pdf, and “-40” means a 40 foot height limit. Not sure what “(M)” means. Since the property is greater than 8000 square feet, it looks like a design review is required. I will be watching for a “proposed land use” sign, and plan on voicing my opinion when the time comes.
- WSB October 12, 2021 (8:04 pm)
  
  M is a reference to its categorization under Mandatory Housing Affordability (HALA). Also, I didn’t get around to finishing this reply earlier, but for the person who wondered about storage, this is the type of zoning that does NOT allow that scale of development – it’s the reason why a plan for storage at 9201 Delridge was scrapped, for example

uncle loco October 12, 2021 (5:52 pm)

Used to be a gas station at one time. Gonna miss this store, the owner and the people who worked there are great and the BBQ was awesome. I wasn’t too happy when they shut down the BBQ though.