The ribbon has been cut on the project to surround Capitol Hill Station with housing, retail, and community development. Come 2020, commercial activity will return to the block for the first time since 2006 and a whole bunch of new Capitol Hill neighbors will call this stretch of Broadway home. But, first, current neighbors need to deal with two years of construction and the rise of two new tower cranes in the heart of Broadway. Here’s how to keep up to date.

This Capitol Hill Station Project Page from the development’s lead contractor Lease Crutcher Lewis will be used to keep the neighborhood alerted to coming construction, the latest milestones, and when big new elements of the construction process will be moving into place, a project representative tells CHS.

The first update for July deals with a key element of the earliest stages of the project — digging up a lot of dirt:

Shoring & Excavation work is currently scheduled to start July 2018. This will involve reinforcing the soil around the excavation to allow us to dig further down. The deepest excavation will be along Broadway on the North end of the site. This building will have three levels of parking, allowing for residential and retail parking spaces. The other two buildings are shallower and each have only one level of parking. The excavation work will involve heavy truck traffic and noise impacts during normal work hours. During this phase, the temporary fencing around the site will take up portions of sidewalk on 10th Ave E. and North & South sides of E. Denny Way. Beginning with the start of excavation, 10th Ave E. will become a one-way street Southbound to accommodate the heavy truck flow while hauling dirt away from the site. Additionally, Nagle Pl. will be closed to through traffic during construction hours (8:00AM – 5:00PM).

The page also includes general project information and, especially important for neighbors, contact information — including specific names and responsibilities — if you have questions or concerns along the way.

In August 2016, Sound Transit signed a 99-year lease with Gerding Edlen to develop the properties it had acquired surrounding the station. The Portland-based developer is leading the project with designs from Hewitt and Schemata Workshop. Berger Partnership is landscape architect for the entire site and part of the design super team working on the Capitol Hill Station development project. Capitol Hill Housing will develop and operate the affordable housing component — Site-B North, the future Station House development.

Walsh Construction will be building 110 affordable rental apartments reserved for those under 60% Area Median Income for Capitol Hill Housing at the corner of John and 10th Ave E. “B-North is pursuing Evergreen Sustainable Development Standards as well as LEED for Homes and has a goal of using at least 14% Women and Minority Owned Businesses during the construction of the project,” according to the project notes.

Lease Crutcher Lewis is leading the construction on the majority of the site including “three apartment buildings situated around a plaza that will house weekend markets and festivals.” The apartment complex “features a total of 318 apartments, 211 below-grade parking stalls and 32,000 square feet of retail space on 1.3 blocks over the light rail station owned by Sound Transit,” the contractor describes the project. All three buildings are pursuing LEED Platinum for homes, according to Lease Crutcher Lewis.

The development is expected to be completed in spring of 2020 with Station House targeting a 2019 opening.

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