By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

The Highland Park Improvement Club rebuilding project needs more donated dollars. But as much as – or maybe even more than – that, iHPIC needs your talent and time.

That was the message at this week’s online “town hall” updating where the project stands, two and a half years after fire ravaged HPIC’s historic community-owned-and-operated building at 12th/Holden.

The meeting, facilitated by HPIC’s board president Rhonda Smith and member Kay Kirkpatrick, lasted less than an hour, and you can see it in its entirety in the HPIC-provided video above. It was the first “town hall” update on the project in more than a year (here’s our coverage of the previous one, in November 2022), and the sixth since the fire.

The project has been far from idle in the ensuing 14 months – it’s been slogging through the city review process, as explained by architect (and Highland Park resident) Matt Estes of Wittman Estes. Key permits are likely just weeks away. But that’s just one hurdle to clear – to make the project reality, it’ll take more community involvement and more fundraising. The latter has made a lot of progress:

But construction costs in the region have continued to rise in a big way, almost doubling in the time the rebuild’s been ramping up, so the project’s price tag has risen too – 20 percent since that last town hall. They’re now just under halfway to what the new HPIC building will need to be a true community center. Shannon Harris explained how HPIC’s past is feeding into its future:

They’re working on an even-more-detailed “case for support,” related to that vision, she said, “to make sure we’re telling the story of HPIC as fully and compellingly as possible.” Then they’ll take that story to potential funders. (If you have potential funders to suggest, people/organizations who might consider supporting this community vision, hpic1919@gmail.com is how to contact the board, which also is working with fundraising consultants.)

But as Kirkpatrick stressed, contributions are welcome and needed in many other forms – materials, skills, volunteer time – so they are inviting involvement from community members with energy and ability, not just people “with a deep checkbook.” For one, the HPIC board has openings.

(Don’t let the “paid member” qualification get in the way if you’re not one yet – contact HPIC to work something out.) The current board members are especially eager to collaborate with people who have fundraising and other relevant experience – marketing and commnications, financial planning, business development, “very professional-level-type skills,” Smith said. Pre-pandemic, pre-fire, HPIC was very “operationally focused,” but the rebuilding phase calls for very different skillsets.

Maybe you’re new in the neighborhood? Jump on in! They’ve waived old requirements of longterm involvement as a precursor to board involvement. “It’s more critical that we get as many people involved as possible,” said Kirkpatrick. “HPIC is a unique organization – it’s owned by its members,” reminded Harris. “This is someething that’s actually ours, collectively, and we would really like to make sure the board is truly representative of the community.”

Getting involved with the board is fun, too, Kirkpatrick noted. “We have a lot of cool people who live in this community and want to do fun things,” Smith added, showing a collage of photos from recent activities including the latest art installation on the HPIC fence and the luminarias at the end of the Not-So-Silent Night annual New Year’s Eve community parade.

Kirkpatrick shared a quote, too, recalling that the building “was almost lost to the community” after the turn of the millennium “because of people not getting involved,” and they don’t want to run that risk again – “if we lose this, we’ll never get it back.”

SO WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? Even if achieving the full fundraising goal takes time, Harris said in response to a question, they’re hoping to amass enough funding to “start building while we raise the rest of the money.” Estes underscored that it can be built in phases. The demolition will be done by hand, and community members will be involved.

(Rendering by Wittman Estes)

So back to the timeline and the technical status, with contractor Mētis Construction waiting in the wings: Architect Estes says they have “two permits in process with the city,” the building permit and Master Use Permit, which adds “a significant amount of time” because of city reviews – such as where the building sits on the site, how much parking is required – “they want a lot more than we’re proposing” – and SDOT concerns such as driveway/access changes from the proposed plan. Those “involved many months of traffic studies, drawings,” and other discussions. But they’re confident the MUP will be approved by the end of the month. Then they can move on to focus to the building permit. “Soon we’ll have answers (expected) that the city will allow us to proceed with the building as drawn.” If the MUP is granted this month, a building permit could be issued by March/April.