West Seattle, Washington
23 Tuesday
Notice something missing in that photo? At West Seattle Rotary Viewpoint Park 
along 35th SW at Alaska, overlooking the West Seattle Golf Course, the totem pole’s gone, with only that blue steel post in place. (Here’s a Flickr shot of what you SHOULD be seeing there; [added 6:48 pm] at left, a Rotary photo.) After a WSB’er e-mailed us yesterday to say she noticed it missing, we put in an inquiry to the Parks Department to ask if it had been taken away for maintenance – and also went over, not just to get the photo you see above, but also to see if there was a note about work being done. Now we’ve just learned, Parks thinks it may have been stolen. We just talked with Terry Boden, who works on maintenance for parks in this area; he says he checked throughout the department to see if anyone has any knowledge of the totem pole being taken away for maintenance, but hasn’t turned up anything – so he’s planning to call Seattle Police to report it as a theft. As donors and stewards of the 33-year-old park, Rotary Club of West Seattle has been investigating too, Josh Sutton tells us – checking out a report of a stuck truck getting towed from the scene, possibly while trying to take the pole away; in fact, while there yesterday, we noted these tracks in the grass:
Parks received that report too and hasn’t been able to confirm it. So if you know anything about what happened to the totem pole, Terry Boden would like to hear from you – he’s headquartered at Lincoln Park, 206-684-7457.
In The Triangle, demolition crews have finished knocking down all the buildings on the future site of Harbor Properties‘ Link (200 apartments/14,000 sf commercial, background here), along 38th between Alaska and Fauntleroy. That photo looks north; here’s a Google Street View image looking east at the now-gone ex-Huling/Gee service building:
When we went by about an hour ago, crews were pummeling away at the remaining below-grade concrete walls on the south side of the site. It’s the biggest active construction site in West Seattle right now; probably the second biggest is the new Fire Station 37, under construction for 2 months now at 35th/Holden.
We stopped by to check out the Triangle site (38th/Alaska) where work has begun on Link (background here), taking these photos just as day 2 of demolition work was concluding at mid-afternoon Tuesday. The old Huling repair-shop building (which more recently had been used to build/store Hi-Yu floats) is about half-gone – above, the view from SW Alaska, looking north; next, the view from 38th, looking east through what’s left of its customer-service area (note the slogan on the wall):
And on the north side of the site, the remaining ex-school buildings are just a pile of splintered wood:
The head of the construction project, developer Harbor Properties tells us, is the same one who ran Mural (WSB sponsor), the apartments/retail building that opened this year across from Jefferson Square. Right now, this is the only project Harbor – which works around the city – has under construction. Before they started work on Monday morning, they visited nearby homes and businesses, they say, to make sure everyone knew who to contact in case of concerns about anything at the site.
(Photo courtesy Harbor Properties)
As reported here yesterday, construction is beginning for Link, Harbor Properties‘ 200-unit, 14,000-square-foot-commercial building along a block of 38th running north from Alaska (map). Harbor says the former school building in the photo above and the former auto shop on the site’s south end will both be demolished over the next 10 days; other equipment, including excavation gear, will arrive within a week; the big “tower crane” should be up by mid-January; construction is projected to last about 17 months. ADDED 1:30 PM: Teardown work started on the north side almost simultaneously – here’s how it looked by midmorning:
We have a few more project details to add shortly, after a followup chat with Harbor execs.
One month after announcing it had secured financing for the project, Harbor Properties‘ Emi Baldowin reports that construction work is scheduled to officially begin tomorrow at the Triangle site where it’s building Link. There’s already heavy equipment staged on the north end of the site, as you can see in our photo (taken along Alaska, from which point the site runs north along 38th [map], with to-be-demolished buildings including an ex-Huling garage and the former home of West Seattle Montessori School [WSB sponsor, now at a new location]). Link will have 200 apartments and 14,000 square feet of retail; at last month’s Fairmount Community Association meeting, Harbor’s Denny Onslow said they expected construction to go “really fast” – which still means just under a year and a half.
As mentioned earlier this morning, it’s a great day to help make sure nobody’s going hungry this Thanksgiving. For the Eastridge Christian Assembly turkey-and-groceries giveaway this morning, the line before it started at 9 stretched about two blocks down 38th north of Fauntleroy. At the head of the line, more than 30 volunteers were getting ready to hand out about 500 turkeys:
Eastridge pastor Josh Crandall told us he’d talked to some of the people in line and found out that some had come from miles around.
The church buys the food with money donated by its members – in addition to this giveaway, they were doing the same thing this morning at their Eastside campus. Meantime, we mentioned earlier that the White Center Food Bank has someone on hand all day for last-minute donations including turkeys – we dropped in and found Mike and Audrey there to help:
They’re expecting to have people at WC Food Bank till about 5 but it’s a good idea to call ahead. We’ll update local food banks’ status and hours on Monday, too; here’s our most recent update from the West Seattle Food Bank (for which you can donate nonperishables by stopping by West Seattle Bowl during tonight’s Turkey Bowl, after 6 pm).
That’s one alternative for 4435 35th SW (map) – the proposed 100+-unit residential/12,000-sf commercial project on the Redline-and-south site – shown for the first time at Thursday night’s Southwest Design Review Board meeting, but not in the online packet. It’s the one that won the most attention – as an option that would feature a little more than 100 condos, over two stories of commercial frontage. More on the meeting ahead:Read More
With almost $40,000 in the city budget to work on planning for what many consider the gateway to West Seattle, the Triangle area, leaders of the nearby Fairmount Community Association continue to work to make sure key players get a firsthand look at the area as it stands now. Four weeks after showing city planner Robert Scully around the area, Fairmount reps (from left in top photo) Nancy Driver, Joan Jeffrey and Sharonn Meeks hosted City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen this morning. He’s been involved in many of the discussions to date, but acknowledged during the half-hour tour that you get a different perspective while walking around. One corridor pointed out, the street that many walk from the homes around Providence Mount St. Vincent to the east, all the way down to the West Seattle Family YMCA (WSB sponsor) in the background of the photo:
Go all the way down 37th to Fauntleroy, and you’ll meet Seung, who recently opened 37th Shoe Repair:
Rasmussen took interest in the recent commercial developments opening in the area, which also includes Cycle U in a former Huling building on the Triangle’s west edge, and the SW Alaska storefront where Alki Kayak Tours is about to open Mountain to Sound Outfitters:
Fairmount’s concern is to make sure there’s an open public process involved with drawing up a vision for The Triangle before too much more piecemeal development happens; they’d like to see an independent urban designer involved, while the city currently is only funding staff time. Rasmussen also advised reaching out to as many local businesses as possible – from the large, like Alki Lumber, to the small, like the new shoe-repair shop, and observed so many spots along the Triangle’s streets that could be brightened with a little landscaping here, a little removal of broken pavement there. We’ll keep tracking the process.
We first told you on Halloween about a project that’s emerged for the Triangle-area site on 35th south of Avalon that now holds Redline Music and Sports and a vacant lot. Today, one week before the Southwest Design Review Board is scheduled to take a look, the early-design proposal for the project is available online – it’s the source for the sketch you see above. The perspective is roughly the same one in this Google Street View of the site:
The proposal packet outlines the plan so far as: “100-150 dwelling units on five floors over a ground level floor of commercial and parking with a below grade basement parking structure. Parking for approximately 158 vehicles would be available to support the 100-150 dwelling units and 12,250 sf of street level commercial space” and says developers are looking at building to the maximum height allowed by current zoning, 65 feet. More details to come when the Design Review Board looks at the project, 6:30 pm next Thursday at the Senior Center of West Seattle in The Junction; the city’s project-status page is here.
The impending start of construction for Link, Harbor Properties‘ residential/commercial building in The Triangle (most recent WSB report here), is the main peg for a story published by the Seattle Times (WSB partner) this morning. The story also takes a wider look at the area as West Seattle’s gateway, noting the city planning work that’s getting under way (as noted here). You can see the Times’ story by going here. ADDED 8:51 AM: Side note for those interested in the future of the adjacent Junction – a reminder that the Junction Neighborhood Organization meets tomorrow night, 6:30 pm, Ginomai (42nd/Genesee), with a presentation on right-of-way improvements proposed for The Junction – benches, street trees, sidewalks, etc.
Last night, we reported on another holdup at Tervo’s Mini-Mart in The Triangle. Today, thanks to a Twitter tip, we learned there was a second convenience-store robbery in West Seattle last night – Delridge Deli Mart (map) also was held up. Official police information may be difficult to come by immediately, with so many resources dedicated to the officer-murder investigation, but we went to the store to seek confirmation, and a store staffer confirmed they were robbed. No word yet on time or description, but there’s been an ongoing series of store holdups in this area – Southwest Precinct Lt. Ron Smith told us last night that the Tervo’s suspects matched the description “from October 22nd” — that’s the night (our report here) that John’s Corner Deli in Sunrise Heights and the Country Deli in Highland Park were both robbed.
(digital version of the rendering substituted Thurs. morning for photo taken Wed. nite)
From the Fairmount Community Association meeting at The Mount tonight: Harbor Properties unveiled that updated rendering of its apartment/retail project Link, while announcing it’s obtained financing, with construction likely to start at the 38th/Alaska site by mid-November. Link includes 200 apartments and 14,000 square feet of retail; Harbor executive vice president Denny Onslow told the 30-plus Fairmount attendees that they haven’t signed up any retail tenants yet but are open to ideas; The north side of the building (left side of the rendering) suggests ground-floor cafe space; the building has some ground-floor housing on both the 38th SW and alley sides – “We want to put some activity into the alley,” says Onslow. He adds that construction should take about 17 months “and that’s really fast.” The contractor, Exxel Pacific, is the same one that built Harbor’s Mural (WSB sponsor), which Onslow says is now 95% rented. The financing is from U.S. Bank and an unnamed “private investor,” both of whom have worked with Harbor before, and according to Onslow, “this will be one of the few apartment buildlngs being built in Seattle right now.”
He says it was once envisioned that this and the so-called “Hole Foods” site would be built simultaneously, as “bookends” to the Triangle, but now that the latter is in limbo, they have stepped up the look of Link a bit, with a metallic finish on its north and south sides to provide reflectivity, and lighting. Also tonight, Harbor Properties confirmed to WSB that it is no longer pursuing a purchase of the 36th/Alaska motel property, though it does own some land north of that site on the same block, and it also owns the site at 37th/Alaska that’ll be used for construction staging (shown here) – slated to become more parking for Link when construction is done. (Also at the Fairmount meeting, crimefighting info from Southwest Precinct reps – that’ll be in a separate report.)
Tomorrow (Wednesday) night, the Fairmount Community Association (not to be confused with Fairmount Springs, which is more than a mile south, with Hansen View inbetween) meets at the facility that anchors its neighborhood – Providence Mount St. Vincent (at the top of the hill in the background of our first photo, looking up 37th SW).
Fairmount residents have been keeping a close eye on development prospects for the area known as the Triangle, and recently got word that the city is ready to move into a new phase of helping the community plan that district’s future. So, looking ahead to tomorrow’s meeting, Fairmount CA president Sharonn Meeks arranged for the city rep on the project, urban designer Robert Scully, to join her and other group reps on a walking tour Monday afternoon. We joined them and walked The Triangle’s perimeter from and to Fire Station 32 (38th/Alaska):
The barbed wire around a parking lot east of the fire station (believed to be a holdover from days as a storage lot) is just one of the signs of a neighborhood in transition. More scenes from the walking tour, and what happens next, ahead:Read More
While we were at the scene of the SW Barton crash, police there confirmed a report we’d been checking out shortly before it happened – that Tervo’s Mini-Mart in the Triangle (map) had been robbed a few hours ago. Southwest Precinct Lt. Ron Smith says two people, one with a handgun, held up the store. He says nobody was hurt, and nobody’s been arrested yet. No other details so far.
Received a few notes/calls about a notable police presence surrounding a Metro bus at 35th/Alaska in the past hour and a half or so. Southwest Precinct Lt. Ron Smith says the call involved a “disturbance” on the bus – primary responding agency was Metro Transit police, with SPD as backup. No other details; no aid/fire crews were summoned, which would generally mean no injuries involved. THURSDAY MORNING UPDATE: Metro police are part of the King County Sheriff’s Office, so we checked on this with Sgt. John Urquhart – he confirms there were no injuries and says no one was arrested, either – the person causing the disturbance apparently needed mental-health attention.
You might have noticed that trailer just east of Lien Animal Clinic. It’s not for the construction project that Lien wrapped up recently (which by the way has an open house 10/25) – it’s for Link, the Harbor Properties mixed-unit project slated for this site on the other side of Lien (38th & Alaska; map), which formerly held West Seattle Montessori School (WSB sponsor, now with a new campus) and a Huling Brothers shop:
We checked with Harbor Properties today after a commenter asked if Link was still supposed to start construction in “early fall.” Emi Baldowin from HP says, “Exxel Pacific, the general contractor, is setting up trailers, hopeful for an anticipated start within the next few weeks,” and they’re still finishing the paperwork to get the project going. Link’s second and final Design Review meeting was one year ago (here’s our report). It’s a 200-unit apartment project with ground-level retail; Harbor is the company that built Mural (WSB sponsor) across from Jefferson Square, apartments over retail including Wallflower Custom Framing (WSB sponsor) and Fresh Bistro. 11:07 AM UPDATE: If you want to hear more from Link’s developers in person, Fairmount Community Association president Sharonn Meeks says they’re scheduled to make a presentation at her group’s next meeting, which is scheduled for 6:30 pm October 21st at Providence Mount St. Vincent (4831 35th SW). She adds that her group would like to thank Harbor having the contractor, Exxel Pacific, “tidy up, mow and (do) tree trimming” around the future construction site.
One, a business break-in attempt – the other targeted a car (whose owner is puzzled why the thief/thieves took what they did) – read on for both reports (one includes a photo):Read More
(photo taken Tuesday, looking east from the west side of the site)
We’ve received a couple notes in the past week or so inquiring about the status of what’s been dubbed the “Hole Foods” site at Fauntleroy/Alaska/39th – where construction on a proposed Whole Foods Market/Hancock Fabrics/residential building has been stalled for more than half a year now – like this note from Dorothy:
I don’t see the Whole Foods sign at the dig at (Alaska) and Fauntleroy. Does this
mean they no longer plan to be there? What is the status of that construction site?
First of all – the banner that used to be on the fence there disappeared the day after our most recent report of vandalism (someone cut the W out of the word Whole). But aside from that, we were overdue for a project check anyway; read on to see what we have found out – both about this site, and another site linked to the Whole Foods project’s original developers:Read More
The latest vandalism to the “Whole Foods Coming Soon” sign at the idled construction site at Fauntleroy/Alaska/39th has morphed it into a display of the site’s nickname, “Hole Foods.” (Last incident, you’ll recall, involved a date change.) We also have a bit of news on the stalled project; its revised land-use permit was officially issued on Monday, as the end of a process triggered when the design changed last summer and the project returned for Design (re-)Review. We checked with city planner Michael Dorcy, who’s assigned to the project, and the permit issuance is not necessarily a sign of anything changing – it was the result of action put into motion long before the site was put up for sale, lawsuits erupted, etc. (Here’s the site’s official city permit-info page.) We also have checked back with Matt Segrest, the local investor who’s been working to put together a deal to buy the site (reported here in April), and his update was simply “nothing new.” UPDATE: As of Thursday, the sign is gone.
That’s Link, the 200-unit apartment/retail building Harbor Properties (whose Mural Apartments sponsor WSB) is planning at 38th/Alaska (map). Today’s city Land Use Information Bulletin includes DPD decisions on the project (read them here), including final approval of Design Review (here’s our report on its second and final Design Review meeting last September) and “determination of nonsignificance.” If you are interested in appealing the decisions, this page has a link explaining how – the deadline is May 14. Link is to be built along 38th on a site currently occupied by West Seattle Montessori School (WSB sponsor) and a former Huling shop; WSMS is moving to a new location next school year.
Congratulations to the West Seattle/Fauntleroy YMCA (WSB sponsor) volunteers who just celebrated reaching their goal in the Partners With Youth campaign. Shown above, from left, are campaign chair Tish Hesse, board chair Walter Reese, executive director Josh Sutton, Volunteer of the Year Craig Anderson, and associate executive Samantha Bowes, photographed at this week’s YMCA of Greater Seattle annual meeting at Sodo Park (which is run by West Seattle-based Herban Feast). Josh reports:
Thanks to the generosity of over 2,000 individuals and businesses in our community, Tish Hesse announced the successful completion of our West Seattle & Fauntleroy YMCA’s Partners With Youth campaign. This has been a tough year for fundraising, but our volunteers and donors combined to make sure kids, teens and families in West Seattle have access to the programs and services they need. Our 160 volunteers raised $410,370 on a goal of $410,000! All of those funds stay in West Seattle, providing 4 full time YMCA staff in Sealth, West Seattle High & Madison Middle schools to help students achieve, scholarships for over a thousand families in child care and camp programs, and other essential services.
Our Annual Meeting also offered an opportunity to recognize our 2008 Volunteer of the Year, Craig Anderson of NUCOR Seattle. Craig spent hundreds of hours organizing, planning and running NUCOR’s Golf Tournament – a huge event last June with more than 140 golfers. He helped turn what had been a fun tournament for vendors & staff into a fundraiser for the Y, establishing a new $45,000 NUCOR Seattle YMCA Endowment to send low income kids & families from West Seattle to Y Camps for years to come.
While reporting a few notes yesterday about Fauntleroy Place (future Whole Foods/Hancock Fabrics/residential site at Fauntleroy/Alaska/39th), we mentioned we still hadn’t heard back from primary site owners Seattle Capital regarding the status of the pending sale they disclosed two months ago. Once it’s sold, Seattle Capital had said back in January, that would pave the way for construction to resume. So we put in another request for comment today – and just heard back from Seattle Capital’s John Huddleston:
Yes, there is still a sale pending. (currently in the due diligence phase of the Purchase and Sale agreement.) Closing of the sale is anticipated to occur sometime prior to the end of June, 2009.
Construction would most likely begin very shortly after closing. The site itself is currently being actively maintained by the original contractor, Ledcor Construction Inc.
The permit for the Phase II construction has been issued. This covers the underground parking as well as the Commercial floor space above it. The Phase III permit for the residential towers above the commercial space has been applied for and is currently being processed.
Active work on the site stopped last fall; developers BlueStar had repeatedly said the project was simply “between phases” — then, last month, the allegations in two lawsuits (reported here and here) gave the situation a new dimension.
WEDNESDAY UPDATE: An article in today’s Daily Journal of Commerce (only available to subscribers) has some new information about the prospective buyers. We have a message out seeking an opportunity for comment; the article reiterates what Seattle Capital told us – construction is likely to resume midsummer (or later).
3 weeks after we brought you first word of lawsuits filed over the stalled Fauntleroy Place project (Fauntleroy/Alaska/39th, future Whole Foods), the site’s owners have filed their response to one of the suits, the one filed by Christopher NeVan‘s BAJ Capital against Fauntleroy Place LLC and stakeholder Seattle Capital (read the suit here). Without much elaboration, the response denies most of the allegations/statements in the lawsuit; the most words of denial come in this passage toward the end of the six-page response:
… Defendants hereby allege the following affirmative defenses:
1. Plaintiff has failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted
2. Plaintiff has unclean hands
3. Defendants have fully performed all contractual obligations
4. Plaintiff’s alleged damages are the result of actions by third parties
5. Complete relief cannot be granted without joining at least one additional party
6. Plaintiff’s claims are barred by the doctrines of waiver and estoppel
7. Plaintiff’s claims are barred by the doctrine of laches
8. Plaintiff has failed to mitigate its damages
9. Defendant had business justifications for the alleged actions
And with that, the defendants ask for dismissal. (Wondering about some of those legal terms? We were. Here’s an explanation for “unclean hands”; here’s one for estoppel; here’s one for laches.) Meantime, you can read the entire six-page document here. We checked, but there’s no similar document available online yet in connection with the other lawsuit, which BlueStar filed against Fauntleroy Place and Seattle Capital. Meantime, one other development: Today’s Land Use Information Bulletin includes the decision officially finalizing design-review approval for the project, following design changes last summer (here’s our coverage of the final Design Review meeting last August). You can read the decision linked from this page, which also explains any appeals must be filed by April 19th. (Still no official word on the site sale reportedly in the works as of two months ago.)
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