That’s a new store that Safeway is building in Los Gatos, California, close in size to its current store in West Seattle’s Admiral District. Could a similar plan — underground parking, outdoor patio — be appropriate for the Admiral project that Safeway’s about to launch? It was one of many suggestions given to five Safeway reps who were on hand last night at the Admiral Neighborhood Association‘s monthly meeting. They had no presentation of their own to make — stating simply and quickly that they don’t even have a design outline for the site yet, and just wanted to hear thoughts from those at the meeting — and, from you:
Sara Corn from Safeway repeatedly expressed concern last night about the best way to communicate with community members regarding the Admiral store’s redevelopment plan. When she expressed a hope of using the Admiral Neighborhood Association as the main or even sole community liaison, even its president Mark Wainwright urged her to diversify the communication plan. One meeting attendee suggested a great way to start soliciting community opinion would be through the store itself — use it as a way to funnel information about the project and distribute comment cards asking customers what they would like to see built. There was also talk of organizing at least one large community meeting to gather ideas and discuss concepts.
To backtrack a bit, it’s long been expected that Safeway would redevelop the Admiral site, though not into something resembling the Jefferson Square setup (“I wouldn’t wish Jefferson Square on my worst enemy” was muttered at one point in last night’s meeting). Then in February (WSB coverage here), Wainwright announced Safeway had officially approached the ANA to open dialogue about the redevelopment process.
It’s certainly a topic of great area interest; one sign of that — City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen attended the meeting to brief attendees on major city initiatives (we’ll write that up later today), and while it’s customary for political leaders to leave such meetings once their part is done, he stayed for the entire Admiral Safeway discussion. (Rasmussen lives in Alki; it was noted at one point that Alki residents have a stake in the Admiral Safeway future too, since it and Metropolitan Market are their nearest grocery stores.)
Though Safeway stresses it has no plan yet, it has hired the people who will come up with one, and some of them were present last night, as part of the five-member delegation. “We just want to hear YOUR ideas,” Corn reiterated, after brief opening remarks.
Much concern centered on the south parking lot, and hopes that some open space would remain, to preserve the space’s status as a transition to the Hiawatha park area across the street. Perhaps, it was suggested, an outdoor patio on the south side of the store.
No matter what, the site will change dramatically. The future project could go as tall as 47 feet – if the first floor is 16 feet high; there will be requests for alleyway changes, and for rezoning the Safeway-owned land on which a house now sits, along Lander. Safeway will not be the only retailer in the space on the site; opinions were mixed last night as to how big other retailers might be — lots of small storefronts? some larger ones? One attendee was worried the Safeway gas station might move onto the central site; the reply to that was a definite “no.”
There also seems to be early consensus that parking would go underground, so that the aboveground space could be maximized with business and some type of housing. And unlike some of the other current development projects on the West Seattle drawing board, this one is not being met with much trepidation — so far. As area resident (and local architect) Shanna Kovalchick put it, “I think it’s really exciting – it has the ability to bring a lot of life to Admiral Junction.”
Next steps: There’ll be an update at the next Admiral Neighborhood Association meeting (7 pm May 13, Admiral Congregational Church). Safeway hasn’t filed for any permits yet, but you can check the site history (going back 20-plus years) on this city webpage.
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