West Seattle, Washington
24 Tuesday
For the first time in months, there’s a West Seattle project up for Southwest Design Review Board consideration – as first reported here one month ago, it’s a mixed-use project at 7100 Delridge Way (map), north of the Shell station that’s kitty-corner from Home Depot and Arco. And today, you can get a very preliminary peek at the shape it might take: “Early design” renderings are now available online in the packet that’s posted on the city website in advance of the 6:30 pm Thursday DRB meeting (West Seattle Senior Center, California/Oregon). Keep in mind, the renderings do NOT include exterior finishes – they’re more for “massing” (size/shape) than anything else. As is required for Early Design, architect Warren Pollock proposes 3 alternatives, labeling #1 as the “preferred alternative”:
The Delridge Neighborhood Plan designates the site vicinity as the “South Node” and it anticipates the development of a walkable pedestrian-scale neighborhood center. The “South Node” is a transportation cross road. There is an important transit stop on Delridge Way SW at the Northwest corner of our site at the foot of the city stairway in the SW Myrtle R /.W. … Concept A locates the building at the sidewalk edge to engage with pedestrian activity moving to and from the transit stop. Commercial space is located at sidewalk level and is transparent to allow views into the space and pedestrian exposure for the business that operates there.
The massing of the building will create the “street wall” that is necessary to achieve a sense of defined space for the neighborhood center. Future development on both sides of the street is necessary to full realize this “goal” of the neighborhood plan, but this project is a start in that direction.
The north end of our street wall will be a green landscape wall that will function as a backdrop for seating for people waiting for transit. Leaning against a glass storefront is not a comfortable way to wait for the bus. Project parking is internal on level 1 behind the commercial space and it steps up to level 2 to respond to the existing topography. …
The several stories of apartments are configured to create an internal courtyard that will be an activity space for the residents. A large opening in the west façade connects the court yard to the street and to the emerging neighborhood center. … 3 rental houses will be build on the hillside to the east of the apartments on the edge of the Urban Forest. … The parking for the houses is in the apartment garage. Elevators will provide access to the pedestrian bridge that crosses over the courtyard to the house. The bridge also provides a connection to the Urban Forest and to the stairway in the SW Myrtle St R / W. …
Again, you can look at the full proposal packet here; public comments are always encouraged at Design Review Board meetings. (The city’s project-status page is here.)
Another side note on the Admiral Safeway project: The old house on the southeast corner of the site, 42nd/Lander, had been offered for many months to anybody who would pay to have it moved – but no takers – it’s now set for demolition. We got a tip from area resident Forest that the fencing had come down and some windows were boarded up; went by, and found the banner you see in the photo above. The company named on the banner, Earthwise, salvages what it can from old houses like this and resells the material to both contractors working on projects and homeowners in the throes of DIY work. That’s according to James Klicpera, Earthwise’s acquisitions manager, who, it turns out, is a West Seattleite. He tells WSB they subcontracted with Safeway to salvage whatever would be reusable and have actually finished most of the work, with much of the “recyclable” material coming from inside the house: 400 square feet of fir flooring, some appliances, windows, a few doors, and he mentions, “There was a very nice fireplace front – kind of Art Deco, tile – so we gathered up as many of those tiles as we were able to.” They also salvaged “several pallets” of bricks from the backyard patio as well as the fencing from around the house (as Forest had noticed). They resell the material, James explained, from a warehouse on 4th Avenue South in SODO. He says some of what they’ve salvaged from other sites is incorporated around West Seattle – like the bar top at Beveridge Place Pub, a recycled bowling lane. Safeway’s Sara Corn tells us other material from the house will be reused after demolition, which could happen as soon as next week – or as late as mid-September, when the existing grocery store comes down. (As first reported here last week, the store will close August 21, with the new store to be open next July.)
(Scroll down for the latest video/info)
FIRST “HAPPENING NOW” REPORT AT 8:15 AM: Just a few minutes ago, the backhoe bit into the back side of the former Pegasus Pizza storefront on Alki (2758 Alki SW). It’s been sitting vacant since the restaurant moved next door 2 years ago. For now, you won’t see anything driving by on Alki Avenue, though, because the work has started behind the building. 8:44 AM UPDATE: Here’s our video from the first crunch (after the backhoe operator carefully plucked a few metal pieces from atop the building – including the satellite/microwave dish and a piece of ventilation/cooling equipment):
A permit’s been granted for the “shell/core” of a new building to be put up at the site. 11 AM UPDATE: Three hours in, the demolition crew is moving to the front of the building – this video shows the second-story front wall coming down (first half of clip and then second part, toward the end of the clip):
Those who’ve come to watch include Pegasus team members past and present who have been sharing memories as they watch the building come down, piece by piece. Among those here is the building’s owner, who tells WSB that the one-story commercial building he’s putting up has “multiple” interested parties so far – but no leases signed yet.
3:45 PM UPDATE: By mid-afternoon, the teardown was all done (and the sun was finally out) – cleanup, of course, remains to be done, before construction. Just before noon, the backhoe was dumping debris into the back of a big hauling truck, but you can see what remained after that, and after the rest of the demolition.
(Photo by Christopher Boffoli, taken during 2009 Admiral power outage)
Just in from Sara Corn at Safeway: The official closing date for Admiral Safeway is set for midnight Saturday night, August 21st. She adds, “The existing store is expected to be demolished in mid-September, and the new store is estimated to be open late summer 2011.” Corn also says they’ll have a website up “soon” to provide updates on the construction schedule and even a construction webcam, as well as providing information on promotions at the Jefferson Square Safeway, for those who choose to shop there while the Admiral store is closed. (update) The pharmacy will open in its temporary HQ (parking-lot trailer) on Aug. 22nd. (back to original report) The last City Council vote related to the project will be Monday, when final approval is expected for the “alley vacation” giving Safeway the right to build over what is technically an alley on the south side of the site (though you wouldn’t recognize it as one).
Three weeks after first word of a Design Review meeting ahead for a mixed-use project at 7100 Delridge Way (map) project, the official notice is out this morning, with a place and time: 6:30 pm August 12th, Senior Center of West Seattle. As the notice reconfirms, the proposal is for “a four-story structure containing 58 units over 1,750 sq. ft. of retail space and three single family structures on a split zone site” with 77 underground parking spaces.
Update on an item from the WSB morning preview: City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen‘s office confirms that the Transportation Committee (which he chairs) approved the Admiral Safeway alley vacation this morning, 4-0. The full council will vote on Monday. Safeway told the committee this morning they’re hoping to start construction in about a month; the site’s “contract rezone” was approved by the council in June. The project will include a new, bigger store, plus a small retail building along California SW on what is now the northwestern edge of the parking lot, and a building along 42nd SW with apartments and flex-work units. 3:21 PM UPDATE: Safeway’s Sara Corn tells WSB that they don’t have an exact store-closing date yet, but will be discussing it tomorrow, and information on that plus the construction schedule should follow. (They previously projected it would take about 10 months to build the new store – here’s our June update with details on a briefing by the project team.)
On one hand, you’ll say, well, of course. On the other hand, it’s still an important official development in the ongoing saga of what might and might not happen at 3922 SW Alaska, aka The Hole, the stalled site that’s tied up in a big consolidated legal fight (the trial date for which – if no deal closes the case sooner – was recently moved to next year). You’ll recall that the original development plan there called for a Whole Foods Market and Hancock Fabrics store, as well as hundreds of residential units. We’d been checking periodically with Whole Foods since the project stalled, even pre-legal fight (to which Whole Foods is a party, though they did not initiate any of the legal action), and they insisted they still had a lease. Not any more, regional spokesperson Vicki Foley just confirmed to WSB when we checked again:
Yes, we have just terminated our agreement with the developer on the West Seattle site. We feel that it is very unlikely that the site will be built within a reasonable timeframe, if at all.
We are definitely looking into alternate sites, although we have not signed anything yet.
You’ll also likely recall that a Trader Joe’s is now set to go in (announced June 16th) at a site that is right across the street from the now ex-Whole Foods site. Tomorrow, we’ll check with Hancock Fabrics – headquartered a few time zones east, so we can’t reach them now – regarding their status on this long-stalled project. Also note, this does NOT mean that nothing will be built at this site – Whole Foods was supposed to be the “anchor tenant” to the original project, but was not the developer – we are also seeking reaction from the company that hopes to wind up owning and developing the site. (Data point: Looking into the archives, we are reminded that demolition at the site was under way exactly two years ago.)
It’s been almost two years since buildings were demolished on the northwest corner of California/Graham (map), at the time slated for a townhouses-plus-live-work-units development that had been proposed a year earlier. Since the demolition, though, the 15,000-square-foot site has remained empty, and weedy, but apparently not much longer. We’d been checking on its status since its fencing came down a few weeks back. Now, half the lot is fenced again, and a real-estate shingle is up at the corner, in front of the unfenced half, pointing to this listing. A conversation with one of the agents, Bryan Loe, reveals what’s ahead: The entire site was purchased less than a month ago by what he says is a local developer partnership, Morgan Junction, LLC. But the previously proposed project, which had even gone through Design Review, is completely dead, he says. The new ownership is keeping the fenced-in north half and plans to build on it soon, according to Loe (the city’s page for the project describes it as “4 attached townhomes and 3 live-work units”), and selling the now-unfenced south half (with a possible buyer already lined up). He says it’s something like what’s happening on a similarly long-empty lot a few parcels north on California:
That’s a new Knoll Development building on the south half of that lot, with the north half fenced off. The developer for the California/Graham north lot is listed as Soleil. Meantime, the California/Graham site is one of the topics on the agenda for tomorrow night’s Morgan Community Association quarterly meeting (7 pm Wednesday, lower-level meeting room @ The Kenney).
As part of the ongoing West Seattle Triangle Planning Project, the city has come up with a draft list of businesses in The Triangle – and is asking for your help in making sure it’s accurate and complete. Take a look at the list here (PDF) – and if you see anything missing, or wrong (for example, we noticed that OK Corral should now be Jones Barbeque), here’s who to e-mail. Meantime, if you happen to be a Triangle business owner, the city now has an online survey they’d like you to take; the city’s point person on the Triangle project, Susan McLain, says, “We are asking business owners to complete a short survey providing information and opinions about business-related issues. The idea for the survey emerged from recent meetings sponsored by the West Seattle Chamber and involving businesses in the Triangle planning area.” If you’re a Triangle business owner, start the survey here. McLain says the results will be out this fall. Tuesday night, she spoke to the Junction Neighborhood Organization meeting – read on for toplines:Read More
For the first time in a half-year, the Southwest Design Review Board will soon have a project to review. The meeting tentatively scheduled for August 12th – no time/place yet – will be “early design guidance” for a proposal at 7100 Delridge Way SW (map). It’s described on the city Department of Planning and Development website as a “split-zone site” with one 4-story mixed-use building “containing 58 units over 1,750 sq ft of retail space,” plus three single-family homes. The proposal also mentions underground parking for 77 vehicles. Owner/developer is John Su, best known for Bellevue high-rise projects like this one.
Thanks to Marilyn for e-mailing to ask about the wooden fence going up on the southeastern edge of The Hole (Fauntleroy/Alaska/39th) late today; we subsequently went over for a few photos. Along with the concrete barricades noted here two weeks ago, the fence is part of what was promised one month ago by the entity that holds the note for the stalled site, in its response to a letter sent by the Southwest District Council, drafted by West Seattle Junction Association executive director Susan Melrose.
The triangular area on the southeastern corner, where the fence will now be the backdrop, is actually a publicly owned mini-mini-park, and part of the complaint about the chain-link fencing around The Hole was that it had made that site inaccessible. For perspective, here’s a wider shot looking eastward at the back of the fencing from the other side of The Hole (that’s the 76 station in the background at right, and the Link construction site with the yellow wrap):
Meantime, as for the site’s status, the legal wrangling continues – the online file for the case that combines multiple lawsuits is now up to 300 separate actions in the past 14 months. If the case isn’t resolved sooner, the trial is still set for this October. The prospective new owners of the site have not publicly discussed their plan, should they gain ownership; Whole Foods had told us a few weeks ago that there might be some news right about now regarding the status of the lease they had for what was supposed to be a new store by now, but they haven’t yet answered our messages left earlier this week.
As reported here last month, the project team for the Admiral Safeway redevelopment has announced that construction won’t start till September, because the city didn’t schedule the public hearing on the necessary back-of-the-lot “alley vacation” till late July. This morning, the official announcement of that hearing is out – it’ll be before the City Council’s Transportation Committee (chaired by West Seattle-residing Councilmember Tom Rasmussen) at 9:30 am July 27. This city webpage has details on how to comment before, and at, the hearing. While the “alley” isn’t recognizable as one, the way it’s used on the site now, it remains city right-of-way, and that’s why approval is required before it is given over to the project (that area will be under the future expanded store.)
Thanks to Larry Nitkey for that photo from 4516 42nd SW (map), where one of the houses scheduled to be cleared away for future development is in the process of being moved. According to Larry, “One of the contractors said they are moving this to 47th & Stevens.” This is one of four houses on the site of the 42nd/Oregon development that’s been in the works for more than 2 years. This house in particular, in fact, came up in a WSB discussion two years ago about saving old houses. 2:07 PM NOTE: Went by to check on progress, and crews are doing some work on the structure; we’ve got a message out to the construction firm to see if there’s a timetable for actually moving it. LATE-NIGHT NOTE: We did talk with the firm’s proprietor – the move actually is still more than 2 weeks away, very early July 17th.
This morning, the official city report is out on a major development reported here Friday in a story that’s been ongoing for almost three years – a request to change the zoning for both sides of one full block (and a bit extra) of California SW. Most of it currently has a 30-foot height limit; the proposed new zoning would add 10 feet. As property owner/rezoning proponent Mike Gain told WSB on Friday, the Department of Planning and Development, which has had the rezoning proposal under review since summer 2007, is recommending approval. This page explains how to comment before the public hearing, which is planned before the city Hearing Examiner at 9 am August 18th (her chambers are on the 40th floor of the Municipal Tower downtown) – after that, it goes to the City Council. The full Director’s Report on the recommendation can be seen here (PDF); we’re reading it now and will add its toplines to this story.
ADDED 10:35 AM: As promised – click ahead for toplines from the report, including what it forecasts would be the eventual effects of the rezone:Read More
Almost three years after it was originally proposed, the recommended zoning change for California SW between Hanford and Hinds (and a bit beyond, on the west side) is moving ahead. We got first word from one of the property owners who first proposed it in 2007, Mike Gain. It’s not reflected yet on the project’s Department of Planning and Development webpage, but DPD’s Bryan Stevens confirms to WSB that the notice is about to be published:
DPD’s recommendation on the rezone request will be published for public viewing on Monday. There will be a 14-day appeal period which initiates upon publication and a required hearing with the City’s Hearing Examiner to review the department’s recommendation. The date for the hearing has been tentatively scheduled for August 18th at 9 am. After the hearing, the Hearing Examiner will issue findings and make a recommendation to City Council to help inform their decision on the rezone proposal.
According to Gain: “The Director’s Report supports the rezone of the 3200 block of California Ave SW from NC1-30 to NC2-40. This essentially would return it to its previous zoning while allowing for one additional floor and increased flexibility in the size and/or type of ground floor retail.” He adds:
This rezone has undergone a lot of review and received substantial public comment. We are pleased with the decision. Several benefits to this that will occur over time are that it will:
· Help enhance the California Ave “corridor”
· Encourage job creation and business vitality
· Maintain and enhance neighborhood character
· Provide more and a better mix of housing options
· Increase the number of goods and services that allow people to shop locallyAs you are aware, in the 1980’s this area was zoned for 40’ and is consistent with surrounding building heights. For some unknown reason and no notice the city down-zoned this area. Since that time there has been little reinvestment – many businesses have come and gone – while some storefronts remain vacant for lengthy periods of time. This rezone will help to change that.
When the proposal was first made, it stirred a fair amount of controversy, which we covered extensively – as archived here (reverse chronological order). Gain and partner Roger Cayce had not put forward a specific project proposal for the area, but at one point along the way, discussed their ideas with WSB. We will be continuing to follow this process, including any proposals they may bring forward in the future. MONDAY MORNING UPDATE: We’re writing a separate story, but in the meantime, here’s the link to the DPD page with the “director’s report,” officially published today as expected.
The Seattle Design Commission has just announced its finalists in the Holding Patterns competition, first reported here two months ago – asking people citywide to pitch ideas for stalled development sites, such as “The Hole” at Fauntleroy/Alaska/49th. They received 83While nothing obviously from West Seattle made the finalist cut, there was one proposal we thought you’d like to see, after SDC’s Valerie Kinast pointed us to it. It’s a “Beer Garden, Dog Park, Outdoor Movies, Sculpture Mound” concept for The Hole – check out the entire five-page proposal here (with some even-more-whimsical drawings) – and you can see all the finalists and honorable mentions by going here. Kinast tells WSB that even though this wasn’t chosen as a finalist, the SC might still help try to make something happen with The Hole: “We are considering all of the major stalled project sites, so just because this didn’t make the cut doesn’t mean that the site isn’t still on our radar. We will be working through which sites have potential in the coming weeks.”
Last month, a spokesperson for the company that holds the note for “The Hole” – the stalled site that we now can describe as “across 39th SW from the future West Seattle Trader Joe’s” – met with local leaders and listened to their concerns (WSB story here); it was a response to the letter sent by the Southwest District Council, which then, two weeks later, received an official written reply (WSB story here). Today, crews were back at the site making good on some of the promises in that reply – as you can see in the “aerial” view shared by an area resident who wants to be anonymous, they’re putting a concrete barricade around the site. We got this view on the ground:
Our anonymous tipster adds, “We got a letter from Chinn yesterday stating that they would be doing this until next Tuesday and that the alley that skirts the west side of The Hole would be periodically closed until then.” Meantime, as for the status of the site itself, the consolidated lawsuits involving a variety of parties continue proceeding toward an October trial date if there’s no settlement before then; the number of actions in the case in the past 14 months, as recorded online, has almost hit 300.
As first reported here in April, the redevelopment plan for The Kenney is undergoing some revision – changing into “something smaller,” as T.J. Lehman of West Seattle-based Euclid Development told the Morgan Community Association at their last quarterly meeting. As part of the changes, The Kenney has just sold some land. CEO Kevin McFeely confirmed to WSB not only that they’re selling 7022 46th Avenue SW (the quarter-acre parcel across SW Myrtle from The Kenney’s NE corner; the site holds an old house and was listed for just under half a million dollars), but that the deal is closing today. He explains that “the property no longer fits into our plans” because of the “retooling” of the redevelopment project. McFeely says he expects to be able to reveal more specifics on the downsized project by the end of next month. (Our 2-year archive of stories on The Kenney’s project can be browsed here.)
The stalled development on the southeast corner of 35th/Avalon will get going again, according to a report in today’s Daily Journal of Commerce. The DJC says “an entity” of Bellevue-based Longwell Company has paid $4 million cash for it. That’s all we know so far — all but the first paragraph of the DJC story is behind a paywall — but we’ll be gathering more information to add as we get it. The project stalled after its original owner, Michael Mastro, was forced into Chapter 7 last year. The DPD permit history for the site is here. 1:10 PM: Thanks to those who’ve sent the rest of the DJC story. While we cannot and would not cut and paste copyrighted material, we’ll note that they also report Longwell says the building will be apartments for the foreseeable future, with rents starting around $1,000, because they’ll have “high-end finishes.” The article also has an interesting tidbit, citing West Seattle’s apartment-vacancy rate at 5.4 percent.
When last we updated the Admiral Safeway project – with this report that the smaller retail building on the northwest side of the current parking lot would not be built first, after all, and the interim pharmacy will instead be in a trailer – Safeway’s Sara Corn said the next milestone was City Council consideration of the “contract rezone” they’ve requested. As she had projected at the time, the rezoning proposal is indeed on a Council agenda this week – the Committee on the Built Environment will consider it Wednesday at 9:30 am at City Hall downtown. Here’s the agenda; here’s the actual Council Bill they’re voting on. According to the agenda, public comment will not be taken at the meeting (though certainly you can e-mail committee chair Sally Clark, vice chair Tim Burgess and/or member Sally Bagshaw before then – contact info is here). The rezone doesn’t change the height limit for any part of the site – it’s listed as 40 feet now, and will remain that – but would change the allowable business size on the section of the site where the store itself will be built, and will change one currently residential section of the site’s south side to commercial zoning. Approval by the full council is required after the committee vote, and the project still needs approval for the north-side “alley vacation.” Once that vote is scheduled, Corn told us last month, Safeway will finalize a construction schedule for the project.
(May 17th photo by Christopher Boffoli)
Two weeks ago, Southwest District Council co-chairs Chas Redmond and Erica Karlovits, along with West Seattle Junction Association executive director Susan Melrose (photo second from right), hosted a visitor at “The Hole” – Natalie Quick (photo left), a spokesperson for Madison Development, whose owner owns the entity that holds the note for the stalled Fauntleroy/Alaska/39th project. The tour (WSB coverage here) was in response to the letter that Melrose drafted and the SWDC sent in April, pointing out safety and aesthetic concerns at the long-idle site. But a written response didn’t come till now: Melrose announced at tonight’s SWDC meeting that it had just been received, signed by Quick. Shortly after the May 17th tour, a few steps were taken – tagged tarp was replaced along the fencing, and “they did get out there with a weed-whacker,” as Melrose put it tonight. But now, she told the council, they’ve addressed other issues. For one, she said, they don’t have a solution for the issue of “The Hole” being right up against the sidewalk with nothing to stop, oh, say, a car from going in, but “they’re working with SDOT.” She says they have “agreed to remove the chain-link fence surrounding the park,” the small triangle adjacent to the site’s southeastern corner, and to maintain “the park.” And she says they will create a more aesthetically pleasing backdrop on that corner, including “a reinforced wood fence,” as well as making public the reports about the condition of the shoring on the north side of the site. Last but not least, they’re “committing to actually checking up on the site,” Melrose reported. We’ll add the letter itself when we get a copy. (More from the SWDC meeting coming up next – including the hour of discussion with Deputy Mayor Darryl Smith.) ADDED 8:55 AM THURSDAY: Here’s the letter – actually more like a memo – in its entirety, just forwarded by SWDC co-chair Karlovits.
(WSB photo of the Satterlee House, 4866 Beach Drive, taken in 2008)
Just got word from the clerk’s office at the state Supreme Court that the justices have said “no” to the request that they take up the longrunning case of whether a specific 3-house development can be built in front of West Seattle’s city-landmark Satterlee House, aka the “Painted Lady of Beach Drive.” As previewed here Monday night, the court’s Department 2 took up the “petition for review” (along with dozens of others) yesterday, behind closed doors. This is a process that does not involve oral argument – the justices review the documents submitted in the case, and decide whether to take it on. And the clerk’s office tells WSB “the petition for review was denied.” They confirm that’s the end of the line as far as judicial review; we will be checking for comment from both owner William Conner‘s lawyer G. Richard Hill and the city’s lawyer, Judy Barbour; this case even had drawn national attention along the way. More to come. (We have covered this extensively over the past 2+ years, each step of the way through the system – our stories are archived, newest to oldest, here.)
2:33 PM: We’ve heard back from Barbour, who called the ruling “a nice retirement present for me! And I do hope that Mr. Conner will now give up the fight and let the old place be fixed up and returned to usefulness as a home.”
5:09 PM: Hill hadn’t seen the decision yet, so is reserving comment until he has. The denial has now been noted on the Washington Courts website, however.
Thanks to Pete Rowen for the photo – he’s one of several people who e-mailed this morning to share the news that the “For Sale” sign just went up at Alki’s vacant, vandalized, weed-ringed Shoremont Apartments (2464 Alki; map). As reported here a month ago, the bank that owned the site – once slated for ultra-modern condos – was taken over in April by the federal government; the city has continued to write up the site for various code violations, but the inspector told us that due to the ownership situation, that had been little more than “an exercise in paperwork.” We couldn’t find the new for-sale listing online so we talked with one of the agents listed on the sign; Steven Chattin tells WSB that the listing will be online in a few days – they’re “having a website built for the property right now” and it should be live later this week. (The website for the team that’s selling it is here.) He says there’s no listing price: “We’re going to do a call for offers on June 25th.” We asked if he knows whether anything will be done about the condition of the site in the meantime, and he said not to his knowledge – “it’s being sold as-is.” (Note: We will always disclose if we alter a photo beyond cropping/light adjustment – so please note that we blurred out a big black-paint tag that’s on one of the boarded-up windows in Pete’s picture.)
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