IT’S HOT! IT’S SWINGIN’! IT’S THE ADMIRAL CHURCH COMMUNITY JAZZ PICNIC!!
Sunday August 11, 12-3:00 pm!
(Picnic lunch 12-1:00; performance 1-3:00)
Admiral Church lawn, 4320 SW Hill St
FREE! ALL ARE WELCOME!

Seattle’s renowned LULU SWING BAND is an all-female ensemble which specializes in 1930s Hot Club Swing with a French and Latin twist. Join us as Admiral Church welcomes Adrienne Reed – Vocals & Accordion, Jennie Mayer – Guitar, Alicia DeJoie – Violin, Rachel Contorer – Bass and Tobi Stone – Clarinet & Saxophone for a groovin’ summer gig on the church lawn. How cool is that, on a (hopefully) warm August afternoon?!

And to get us all in the mood, how about a picnic?! Admiral Church will be serving up gourmet box lunches with entrees of baked salmon, chicken or vegetarian and summery side dishes, beverages and desserts. Yum! And it’s all FREE, our gift to the community!

We will be accepting contributions of cash and non-perishable food for our annual Summer Food Drive. Please donate! So many families in our city struggle with food insecurity, especially in the summer, when food bank donations are down. YOU can help!

So bring your blankets and lawn chairs, your appetites and your Summer Swing! Sign up at admiralchurch.org on our Eventbrite link and join in the FUN! Can’t wait to see you there!

(Concept for what you’d see turning off California onto Hill)

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Calling it a ‘continuation of transparency” about the future redevelopment of its site, Admiral Church brought back its partners to show off the site plan to the community this past Sunday afternoon, after an earlier meeting with its congregation. It’s not a final design but this has the most details yet about how the church and Homestead Community Land Trust envision filling the site with a mix of affordable and market-rate for-sale housing as well as a new mixed-use building for the church and its programs.

They finalized their partnership plans last year; the church had long been seeking a way to ensure a sustainable future despite its deteriorating building, while using its half-acre campus for community good, including affordable housing.

“We’re thrilled with this design – it’s exactly what we were hoping for,” said Admiral Church’s pastor, Rev. Andrew Conley-Holcom. “We’re over the moon impressed with the work that Third Place Design has done.” That’s the project architect. The bulk of the new information was via this site plan:

The project would be broken up into five buildings. Third Place’s Poppi Handy explained that they didn’t want to design it as “one massive building.” From west to east, the site plan shows a building with four 3-story, 3-bedroom townhouses with garages; another with three 3-story, 4-bedroom townhouses; the mixed-use building with room for the church and its programs, plus eight condo “flats” on three stories above it; a building with two 3-story, 3-bedroom townhouses; and a building with four 2-story, 3-bedroom townhouses. The site also would have a shared courtyard, a rooftop deck, and an 18-space parking lot (12 for the church and 6 for residents). In all, that’s 21 for-sale residential units – 13 townhouses and 8 condos. One note: The condo “flats” in the mixed-use building will have access to an elevator, which the project team says helps with the accessibility challenges otherwise raised by three-story townhouses.

The church would have entrances on two sides – one for people coming from the parking lot, the other for people coming from California/Hill. The church’s space will include offices and community rooms (they currently host a variety of community uses, from the Admiral Neighborhood Association to recovery groups). One thing it won’t include: The preschool A Child Becomes will not be part of the new campus (Rev. Conley-Holcom said it has already secured a new home at another church).

(Part of a 3-D “flythrough” shown at meeting)

Questions were fielded by project participants including Handy, Homestead CLT’s Kathleen Hosfeld, and the pastor. What about the site grade? It’ll be leveled, said Handy. The current basement space will be filled. Will the rooftop deck be available to the neighboring community for events? Hosfeld said that possibility can be explored, though it would require a public restroom, among other things. Will there be solar power? Yes, they’re planning on solar for all townhomes, depending on financing, and probably at least the “common area” of the church/condos building.

The parking plans drew some discussion. Yes, there’ll be EV accommodation, with the help of city subsidies. Why 10 spaces for 21 residential units? They expect nearby street parking to handle it.

As has been the case in previous discussions of the project, many questions centered on the “affordable homeownership” aspect of the project. 13 of the units will be “affordable” to households with income no greater than 80 percent of the area median, though Homestead says they aim for more like 65 percent. Right now, that means a little over $300,000 for a three-bedroom townhouse, considered affordable to a 2-person household making $88,000. “That may sound like a good income, but it’s not so affordable for buying homes,” Hosfeld observed. In the agreement with Homestead, buyers agree to limit their equity to help ensure the unit would be affordable in perpetuity, as the land-trust agreement stipulates.

Why only 13 affordable homes? That’s all the available subsidies – city/state grants, for example, totaling about $250,000 per unit – will cover; profits from the eight market-rate units will also help subsidize the affordable units. So far they have about $4.5 million for the project (we reported on one grant earlier this year); making it all affordable units would require another $2.4 million or so. Which of the currently planned units are the affordable ones? That’s not settled yet, except for the four townhouses on the northwest side of the property.

Buyers will come from Homestead’s 2,000-family waitlist, and they said they have up to 40 qualified applicants for every home that’s become available (they use “fair housing tiebreaking criteria,” as explained here).

A lot of how this all works will be stipulated by a homeowners’ association agreement – for example, though they’re not part of the land trust,, “even the market-rate homes will have to stay owner-occupied.” The church will be a condo, technically, and it too will be bound by the HOA.

TIMELINE: Design and planning will continue through the end of 2025; they hope to get permits in March 2026, and from there, construction would last about a year and a half. The permit process will include more opportunities for public comment; at Sunday’s meeting, attendees were invited to evaluate design elements such as roof pitches, exterior materials, and windows (above).

Four development notes this afternoon:

5249 CALIFORNIA: We noticed new signage today at this long-mostly-idle site just south of the past-and-possibly-future Ephesus: “New Homes Coming Soon!” A check of city files shows that permits are still under review for the latest proposal here, two 3-story buildings with nine townhouses, same project we last mentioned in early 2023. The website for J&T Development, which bought the site two years ago, says the units will all be 3 bedrooms, 3 baths.

3507 SW WEBSTER: This 4-story townhouse project, replacing a 2-story building, is in the “early design review” stage and a community survey closes after tomorrow (Monday, May 27). Project information is on a webpage the developers set up here; the survey is here.

2236 ALKI SW: This site also has a townhouse project in “early design review,” and an outreach webpage set up by the developers. It says they’re planning a community “site walk” for Q&A and info, 4-6 pm on Thursday, June 6.

ADMIRAL CHURCH AFFORDABLE HOMEOWNERSHIP: Also coming up, Homestead Community Land Trust and Admiral Church plan an update meeting at the church (4320 SW Hill) 2-4 pm next Sunday (June 2) with “concepts” for their affordable-homeownership project. (Here’s our most-recent coverage.)

Join us for an update on concepts to develop affordable homeownership and a new church at the current location of Admiral UCC in West Seattle. We welcome your feedback.

(Concept shown at Admiral Church/Homestead CLT event last October)

Last fall, Admiral Church finalized a deal to turn over its half-acre site to Homestead Community Land Trust, which would in turn build housing and a space for the church and its community partners. More than three months after this open house provided more details on the plan, a city Office of Housing grant has been finalized to fund part of it: $1,430,000, as part of the city’s annual affordable-housing funding round. After the city’s announcement on Wednesday, we checked in with Homestead CLT to see where the project is at.

First a bit of backstory – Admiral Church had been working for years to figure out a sustainable future to deal with its deteriorating building, while using its half-acre campus for community good, preferably including affordable housing. The church started working with Homestead in 2022 and announced an agreement in fall 2023 that is expected to result in townhomes on the site, all for sale, some at market rate, more at “permanently affordable” prices facilitated by Homestead holding the actual land “in trust.” The latter is made possible by funding Homestead obtains from both public and private sources.

So we asked Homestead’s Kathleen Hosfeld what the newly finalized city grant means to the project: “The City funding is one of several sources we need. It represents a little over half of the public funding to make the project feasible. Unfortunately, the project did not receive an award from the State in the 2023 funding round just announced. This means we’ll need to apply again next fall.”

The city announcement included some specific projected numbers for the housing that the project would create – saying the project would “construct 18 new townhomes, where 11 will be permanently affordable 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom townhomes.” However, Hosfeld tells WSB that the numbers are not final yet: “We are still in the scenario exploration phase – working to create a cohesive campus with a church facility that meets their needs, housing that meets our mission goals, and an overall design that fits with the neighborhood. As a result, we have not finalized the number of affordable and market rate homes. The funding amount awarded by the city can be amended if we reduce the number of homes. We will know more as we continue to learn about site constraints.”

More information for the community is expected in spring, she added: “We are hoping to have some concepts to share with the community in either March or early April for feedback.” If you’ve missed previous coverage explaining how Homestead’s model works – here’s their explanation.

It was a full house – more than 100 people of all ages, babies through seniors – when the West Seattle Big Band presented a holiday concert this afternoon at Admiral Church. We recorded three of the Christmas songs for you – first, “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year”:

Here’s “The Christmas Song”

And “Baby, It’s Cold Outside”:

(Jim Edwards directs the WSBB; Jenaige Lane and Greg Dirks were the vocalists in our clips; Bud Jackson sang later.) The rest of the program included some non-holiday selections too. The band, which spends much of its year donating its time to raise money for school music programs, donated this appearance too so the church could raise money (admission was free but a basket was passed) for its music program.

Watch for more public WSBB performances next year – their calendar is at westseattlebigband.com, along with history on this quarter-century-and-going-strong group!

CRAFT FAIR IN THE STYLE OF AN OLD-WORLD GERMAN CHRISTKINDL MARKT!

Saturday, November 18th
from 10 A-4 P at Admiral Church
4320 SW Hill Street
(in the North Admiral District just off California Avenue)

Beautiful, unique crafts and homemade holiday baked goods.
Bavarian pretzels, hot drinks, including hot chocolate and cider.
Christmas lights, evergreen boughs and holiday music.
Drop by for a holiday drink and find great gifts for family and friends!

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Admiral Church‘s agreement to turn over its half-acre property to Homestead Community Land Trust is just the first step in what’s expected to be at least a four-year journey to transformation of the site into new homes and a new home for the church.

The projected timeline is part of what was revealed at an open-house-style gathering in the church sanctuary this past Sunday afternoon, four weeks after the church and Homestead CLT announced the plan. As we’ve been reporting, the church had been on a years-long quest to secure a sustainable future – the costs of maintaining an aging building could not be borne without some sort of change. The plan will enable “affordable” homes, offered for sale, to be built on the site along with a new “flexible” space for the church and its ministries/tenants, which currently include a preschool as well as various community groups.

The architects working on the project, Third Place Design Co-operative, were in attendance, with renderings showing possibilities for how the church site’s future housing could look and feel. They told us the predominant housing type they’re considering for this site is “three-story townhouses.” The easels offered people at the gathering a chance to place dot stickers on images they liked, from architecture to amenities such as greenspaces between the buildings, porches, small fenced yards. Some of the featured images, they told us, were from a project under way now in Tukwila.

That’s an 18-home development on land previously owned by Riverton Park United Methodist Church, according to Homestead CLT’s executive director Kathleen Hosfeld, who was also at the Admiral gathering, standing by an easel explaining the “Net Zero” building philosophy for which they aim – energy-efficient, which in turn means lower utility bills.

Another Homestead rep staffed a general Q&A table, including how their model works (here’s how). 60-65 percent average mean income (AMI) is their sweet spot for potential buyers; 80 percent AMI is the ceiling to qualify. They are able to offer lower prices to qualified buyers because of subsidies from public (like the Seattle Housing Levy, which is on the current ballot) and private funding, These have to be the buyers’ only homes, and they can’t be rented out – the owner has to live there. If they want to sell their home, they can find a qualified buyer on their own, but most work with Homestead, which has a long waiting list. They even have a tiebreaker system if needed.

The open house ended with a moment of recognition for City Councilmember Lisa Herbold, who helped connect Homestead CLT with Admiral Church years ago. Rev. Andrew Conley-Holcom offered a few words of appreciation, telling the backstory of the church’s journey to this point (including this meeting we covered four years ago), and the councilmember briefly spoke:

We asked Hosfeld where the project goes from here: “What happens next is we start the design process. We need to engage the civil engineer, geotech and other advisers to study the site, and model out what we can build. That’s probably a 4-6 month process. Once we have some concepts to share, we’ll reach back out to the neighborhood for some input again. In the meantime, we’ll meet with the immediate neighbors across the street and make sure we set up a good communication system with them.” If all goes well, construction of the as-yet-undetermined number of homes could start in fall of 2025 and last about a year and a half. If you have questions for Homestead, you can email westseattle@homesteadclt.org.

SIDE NOTE: We noticed on the Homestead website that the first of its now-245 homes in trust was referred to as the “Delridge House.” Indeed, Hosfeld told us, it all began with a little house that was moved off the site of the Delridge Library to a site elsewhere in Delridge. The nonprofit made this video a few years back telling the story:

Hosfeld says the original owner of the “Delridge House” has since sold it – but as with the other homes they’ve acquired or built, it will forever remain in trust.

(Photo by Jamie Kinney – see more here)

Here’s what’s happening as the weekend continues!

WESTIES RUN CLUB: Now they’re running on Sunday mornings too – meet at 9 am at Dough Joy Donuts (4310 SW Oregon).

SOUTHWEST ARTIST SHOWCASE: Community art on display at Southwest Library (9010 35th SW), open 10 am-6 pm.

WEST SEATTLE FARMERS’ MARKET: 10 am-2 pm, the market is open as usual between SW Alaska and SW Oregon on California, offering fall fruit and vegetables as well as flowers, cheese, fish, meat, baked goods, condiments, fresh-cooked food, beverages (from cider to kombucha to beer/wine), nuts, more. Here’s today’s vendor list.

DONATION DRIVE: Help people in need – bring donated items to Alki UCC (6115 SW Hinds), 11 am-3 pm. The wish list is in our calendar listing.

ADMIRAL CHURCH DEVELOPMENT MEETING: All are invited to come hear and talk about the church’s recently finalized partnership with Homestead Community Land Trust, 1:30 pm. (4320 SW Hill)

LEARN TO RESEARCH FAMILY HISTORY: Free family-history lab at the West Seattle Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (4001 44th SW), 2:30 pm-4:30 pm. Email to reserve a slot if you can – info’s in our calendar listing.

DRUMMING TO CALL THE SALMON HOME: It’s just about time for splmon to show up in Fauntleroy Creek, looking for love. To encourage them, the annual tradition of gathering to drum and sing for a bit is set for 4 pm. Come to upper Fauntleroy Way and SW Director (across and upslope from the ferry dock), and a drumbeat will lead you down the driveway to the gathering.

SUNDAY NIGHT JAZZ: Triangular Jazztet at The Alley (4509 California SW), 8 pm and 9 pm sets.

Something for our calendar – one-time or recurring? Email us the info – westseattleblog@gmail.com – thank you!

(Photo by Joanne Murray for Admiral Church)

One month after Admiral Church announced it was finalizing an agreement with Homestead Community Land Trust for the future of its site, this Sunday brings your chance to hear details and ask questions about the plan. The site will be developed into for-sale units, “most … to be made affordable to those who make less than 80% of area median income,” plus a new home for the church itself. How many homes and what type, too soon to tell, HCLT told us after the announcement last month, but not “single-family detached.” Construction could start in 2025. The agreement followed four years of soul-searching by the church on how to best ensure its future while contributing the most to the community. The meeting “to discuss the partnership and listen to the community’s vision for homes at the site” is at the church (4320 SW Hill), 1:30 pm Sunday (October 22nd), all welcome.

Backstory here.

HALLOWEEN BINGO, PIZZA AND COSTUME PARTY!
Sunday, October 15, 6:30-8:00 pm
Admiral Church, 4320 SW Hill St
FREE! Great costume and Bingo prizes! Community warmly welcomed!
Grand Prize: 3 nights in Scenic Leavenworth!
Questions? Text (206) 300-6974.

(Photo by Joanne Murray for Admiral Church)

For four years, we’ve been reporting on Admiral Church‘s soul-searching over how to best ensure its future viability, while utilizing its half-acre campus for community good, ideally including affordable housing. In April 2022, the church announced it had decided what path it would follow, working with Homestead Community Land Trust “to gift them the total of our real estate for the development of permanently affordable, ownership-focused housing (including) a flexible use space exclusively for Admiral Church’s ministries …” Now, a year and a half later, the church and Homestead have just announced they’ve formalized the plan. First, the announcement:

Homestead Community Land Trust and Admiral United Church of Christ have signed an agreement that will lead to the development of permanently affordable homeownership on church land in the Admiral neighborhood of West Seattle.

Under the terms of the agreement, Admiral Church will convey its land in exchange for the ability to continue its ministries in the Admiral neighborhood in a newly constructed gathering and worship facility in the new development, representing a cost that is significantly below the market value of the property. Admiral Church and Homestead’s agreement makes it possible for most of the homes developed to be made affordable to those who make less than 80% of area median income.

“Admiral Church seeks to open the neighborhood to households that have historically been disadvantaged and excluded from homeownership,” said Reverend Andrew Conley-Holcom, pastor of Admiral Church. “We selected Homestead as a partner because their model creates generational wealth for its owners and Homestead is committed to partnering with us and the surrounding community in imagining and developing the homes.”

Admiral Church has served the North Admiral neighborhood in West Seattle since its founding over a century ago and is partnering with Homestead to continue that service well into its next century. The church conducted significant outreach with the neighborhood to gauge support for the concept of an affordable-housing project, including hosting neighborhood meetings, doing one-on-one meetings with interested individuals, and conducting an online survey through a neighborhood association. Over 80% of the 200+ respondents supported an affordable-housing project on the church’s site.

“By donating a significant amount of their land equity to this project, Admiral Church is going the extra mile to achieve its social and racial justice mission. Thanks to the members’ generosity, people who have been historically excluded from owning a home will have that opportunity in a lovely, walkable neighborhood with great schools and a thriving business district” said Kathleen Hosfeld, Homestead CEO and Executive Director. Hosfeld herself lives in the Admiral district.

Affordability at the site will be achieved through lower-cost land and the investment of public and private subsidy. The church, which will be temporarily relocated within West Seattle during construction, will return to a newly constructed gathering and worship facility co-located at the site.

The partners conducted initial feasibility to substantiate the terms of a purchase and sale agreement for the land. However, the site plan and project pro forma has yet to be finalized. The partners will host a community meeting to discuss their partnership and listen to the community’s vision for homes at the site on October 22, 1:30 pm at the Church, 4320 SW Hill Street.

Affordable housing timelines are subject to change, but the partners hope that construction will begin in 2025 and be completed in 2026.

Homestead is a classic community land trust, following the model created by Civil Rights era leaders in the 1960s and 1970s to prevent displacement and allow people to build wealth through ownership. Homestead builds new homes, fundraises to reduce the price of homes to what is affordable to a lower-income household, and keeps homes affordable permanently through agreements with our homeowners and post-purchase support. Homestead lowers barriers to homeownership for those excluded by discrimination, and has nearly 60% ownership by people of color. Typical home prices through Homestead range from $240,000 to $330,000. Homestead has 245 homes in trust and has created over 300 first-time homebuying opportunities for income-qualified buyers.

Admiral Church has been serving the people of the North Admiral neighborhood in West Seattle since its founding in 1899. The church is welcoming to all, having voted to be explicitly “open and affirming” decades ago. The church is a congregation that is God gifted, love centered, open to the future and extending Christ’s footsteps into the world. The church is committed to reach out to the un-served and the unseen in our community and seek diversity, peace, and justice in our world.

Homestead currently has 70 homes in West Seattle, said Hosfeld in response to one of the followup questions we asked her. Also:

How many homes will be built on the Admiral Church site? No estimate yet. What type? “They will not be single-family detached for sure. We have run studies to make sure the project was feasible but haven’t come up with the final mix. We do want to be sensitive to surrounding structures and homeowners and make sure the project fits in well.”

How affordable? “Affordable to below 80% AMI. The AMI levels for our homes in recent years have been 60% to 72% AMI. We will seek subsidy to get the prices as low as possible. There may be several “market rate” homes in the mix. We include market rate homes in projects to provide an internal form of subsidy so we can lower the prices of the homes for income-qualified buyers. We haven’t determined how many yet. We set the initial price of market rate homes to be at or below local comps at the time of sale.

Finally, we asked about terms of the agreement between Homestead – which is a nonprofit – and the church. “There is a technical purchase and sale agreement, and the payment from Homestead involves a limited amount of cash that serves as a bridge for the church while the project is completed. Payment also includes building and conveying a new church facility. The assessed value of the church property, according to King County Records, is $4 million. What the church might have received by selling it to a for-profit developer would be considerably higher. There isn’t a precise dollar amount value of the church facility at this point.”

P.S. For a bit more on how Homestead’s model works, see our summary in this past WSB story.

If you have nonperishable food to share, Admiral Church invites you to bring it over and contribute to its summer donation drive for the White Center Food Bank. A bin is open in the church lobby (4320 SW Hill) 10 am-1 pm today and Tuesdays through Thursdays plus Sundays; church volunteers are outside to accept drive-by/dropoff donations 10 am-noon Mondays and 2-4 pm Thursdays. Here’s a list of what’s most needed. The donation drive continues through the end of August.

FAT SUNDAY!
February 19, 2023, 12:00 noon
Admiral Church

Admiral Church warmly welcomes ALL to “FAT SUNDAY!”, a jazz and Mardi Gras-style celebration on Sunday February 19 at 12:00 noon, 4320 SW Hill St in the North Admiral neighborhood. The party begins with an hour of hot jazz from the Tobi Stone Jazz Quartet in the Admiral Sanctuary, renowned for comfort and fine acoustics. Get down and move to the music; that’s what they’d do in the Big Easy! Then we’ll move into the Fellowship Lounge for a Mardi Gras feast of traditional jambalaya and, yes, a King Cake, complete with baby! Yum! And it’s all FREE! It’s Admiral Church’s gift to the community. Get into the spirit! Festive attire encouraged, and we’ll have some extra beads on hand, in case you forget yours at home.

Saturday, November 19, 11 AM-4PM
Christmas Market at Admiral Church

CHRISTMAS MARKET |
CRAFT FAIR IN THE STYLE OF AN OLD WORLD GERMAN CHRISTKINDL MARKT!
Admiral Church, 4320 SW Hill Street

Beautiful, unique crafts and homemade holiday baked goods.
Bavarian pretzels, hot drinks, including mulled wine and cider..
Christmas lights, evergreen boughs, and holiday music.
Drop by for a holiday drink and find great gifts for family and friends!

Tuesday, November 15, 7:00 PM
1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted A Culture | a new documentary

What if the word “homosexual” was never meant to be in the Bible? 1946: The Mistranslation That Shifted A Culture is a new documentary that chronicles how the misuse of a single word changed the course of modern history.

screening and discussion at Admiral Church, 4320 SW Hill St
just days after its WORLD PREMIERE @DOCNYCfest

Admiral United Church of Christ is an open and affirming faith community located in the North Admiral district.

Support the Admiral Church Summer Food Drive

Bring your food and monetary donations to the church at 4320 SW Hill Street Wednesdays between 12 and 4 and Sundays between 12 and 2. Your donations go to support the White Center Food Bank.

A barrel will be available for your donations.

Dry goods only, please.

Monetary gifts enable the food bank to by foods that are perishable for families in our area so that they can have a more nutritious diet with foods purchased locally from stores and farms that would otherwise go to waste.

Support the Admiral Church Summer Food Drive

Bring your food and monetary donations to the church at 4320 SW Hill Street
SUN | 10A-12:30P; TUES and WED | 11A-1P; THURS | 11A-4P.
Your donations go to support the White Center Food Bank.

A barrel will be available for your donations.

Dry goods only, please.

Monetary gifts enable the food bank to by foods that are perishable for families in our area so that they can have a more nutritious diet with foods purchased locally from stores and farms that would otherwise go to waste.

Support the Admiral Church Summer Food Drive

Bring your food and monetary donations to the church at 4320 SW Hill Street
SUN | 10A-12:30P; TUES and WED | 11A-1P; THURS | 11A-4P

Your donations go to support the White Center Food Bank.

A barrel will be available for your donations.

Dry goods only, please.

Monetary gifts enable the food bank to by foods that are perishable for families in our area so that they can have a more nutritious diet with foods purchased locally from stores and farms that would otherwise go to waste.