Henry’s Gym — part gym, part social club, part bar — coming to Capitol Hill

(Image: Lara Swimmer/Graham Baba Architects)

(Image: Henry’s Gym)

A Capitol Hill auto row-era garage building overhauled from the bones up in a multimillion adaptive reuse project and reopened to start 2023 with hopes of attracting a major office space tenant will have a much louder, sweatier, and probably more fun future.

CHS has learned a new Henry’s Gym is coming to Boylston Ave in a project that will convert all three stories of the The Boylston Garage building into a new-era fitness facility complete with the latest workout equipment — and a bar.

“Be epic,” Henry’s says.

“Our space is awash with nightclub lighting, motivational quotes, large curated art collection and a dedication to music…all meant and designed to inspire and motivate on a scale never seen before in Seattle,” the gym says of its “social club” style. Continue reading

The Boylston Garage, a Pike/Pine preservation without mixed-use development, ready for office space future

(Image: Lara Swimmer/Graham Baba Architects)

(Image: Lara Swimmer/Graham Baba Architects)

With time and waves of development, there are fewer and fewer remnants of the past to preserve in the Pike/Pine Conservation District. Most of the neighborhood’s best examples of auto row-era architecture have been incorporated into multi-story mixed-use development. Most of the rest were either long ago gutted — or torn down.

A long ago Capitol Hill auto garage that has survived all of that to stand on Boylston Ave for more than 100 years now is ready to begin its new life after an adaptive reuse overhaul, “excavating and restoring the building’s historic character, while selectively and tastefully upgrading it for a new phase of life.”

Capitol Hill-based architectural firm Graham Baba says the newly completed Boylston Garage project stands out in Pike/Pine. Continue reading

With sentence completed in New Mexico, man faces trial for rape of unconscious women in Capitol Hill apartment

Redwolf Pope is scheduled to face trial later this month in King County Superior Court four years after he was charged with the rape of two unconscious women in a Boylston Ave apartment where police said they found proof the sexual assaults occurred after the discovery of secret cameras, and a stash of incriminating recordings.

The local court proceedings come after Pope completed his prison sentence in New Mexico for raping a woman there in 2017. Continue reading

Two ‘mystery’ projects take shape with planned beer-y future in the Central District, new basement restaurant on Capitol Hill

Construction underway this summer at the Heath Printers building on Capitol Hill (Image: CHS)

Sometimes it’s a secret. Sometimes nobody knows. And sometimes you just haven’t asked the right person.

While the pace of new food and drink openings has understandably slowed, two Capitol Hill and Central District “mystery restaurant” projects continue to take shape. As the industry continues its work at recovery, the projects represent bright — and intriguing — lights on the horizon.

On Capitol Hill, work has been underway for months in a full transformation of the interior of Boylston Ave’s Heath Printers building with a planned change of use to “eating & drinking establishment” and construction of “substantial alterations for tenant improvements of restaurant and office spaces throughout existing commercial structure,” according to plans filed with the city. The property just around the corner off E Pine is part of the near block snapped up by developer Asana Partners and was the home to Capitol Hill-born coworking company Office Nomads before that venture went fully virtual during the pandemic.

Asana has brought on Capitol Hill-based Graham Baba Architects, the prolific firm behind many of the neighborhood and city’s most ambitious recent food and drink construction projects, to design the space. Continue reading

With planned fall openings, City of Seattle acquiring three Capitol Hill developments for homelessness housing — UPDATE

The City of Seattle announced Monday it is acquiring three nearly complete Capitol Hill developments to be turned into “new income- and rent-restricted housing” as part of a first round of acquisitions powered by millions of dollars of local, state, and federal funding.

CHS reported here on one of the developments part of the acquisition — a microhousing project on Boylston Ave E that had been teed up to include two of its 60 units under the city’s Mandatory Housing Affordability program.

The seven-story project is being acquired by the city and will be used to offer housing to “adults experiencing homelessness or at extreme risk of homelessness” and will be operated by the Low Income Housing Institute. Continue reading

One reported to hospital in Quinalt Apartments fire — UPDATE

Thanks to reader Gabe for this picture from the response

Seattle Fire swarmed the area around Boylston and Mercer Monday after smoke was reported at the 1925-built Quinalt Apartments building.

Two people were reported in need of medical attention including one victim in his 30s who suffered smoke inhalation and a second suffering an asthma attack. UPDATE: Seattle Fire says the woman in her 20s who suffered the attack was also taken to the hospital in stable condition. SFD says a third patient, a man in his 70s, was treated at the scene and a firefighter who suffered a minor injury was also taken to Harborview for evaluation.

Continue reading

Design review: First Hill’s The Victor set to rise — in deference — next to First Baptist Church

There is a chance Wednesday night’s session of the East Design Review Board will be postponed due to wintry weather. If so, you’ll be prepared early for a January 29th session reviewing on The Victor, a planned eight-story, 227-unit apartment building on First Hill.

If not, read up quick and settle in for what could be the project’s final step in the public design process.

CHS reported last May on the early plans for the project from developer Carmel Partners and Encore Architects and their “church-friendly” midrise design in a zone that could have featured an apartment tower. Instead, the new development planned for 1100 Boylston will replace a surface parking lot with lots of new First Hill housing but even more deference for the neighboring First Baptist Church. Continue reading

911 | Madison Valley drive-by, E Thomas reported shotgun phone robbery, explosive dumpster fire

See something others should know about? Email CHS or call/txt (206) 399-5959. You can view recent CHS 911 coverage here. Hear sirens and wondering what’s going on? Check out Twitter reports from @jseattle or tune into the CHS Scanner page.

  • 25th Ave drive-by: A drive-by shooting left no reported injuries but damaged vehicles and homes near 25th and Mercer late Sunday night. According to East Precinct radio updates, police reported hearing 25 to 30 shots ring out just after 11 PM. Police found at least one vehicle that had been hit and bullet damage to at least two nearby homes. There were no reported injuries. Witness accounts described a silver sedan carrying at least two people who opened fire with two or three different guns before speeding away from the scene. Police searched the area but there were no arrests. Editor’s note: We originally identified this as a Central District location but as some have pointed out, it is a Madison Valley location. We’ve updated the headline.
  • Shotgun phone robbery: Police were called to E Thomas near Broadway to a report of an armed robbery of a phone. According to police radio reports, a man reported the suspect had pulled a shotgun and taken his phone just after 2:30 AM Monday morning. It wasn’t immediately clear whether the hold-up had taken place in a nearby building or on the street. Police were searching the area including Cal Anderson Park’s chemical toilets for the suspect but there were no arrests. No injuries were reported.
  • Boylston/Union dumpster arson: A dumpster fire with loud explosions woke residents around Boylston and Union early Monday. Seattle Fire responded to the blaze around 2:15 AM. Police were called after witnesses described two men seen setting the fire to a mattress and other items in the dumpster before fleeing. The two men were also reported pushing a shopping cart and were last seen fleeing westbound on Union. The Seattle Fire Marshal was called to investigate the scene. Last week, SPD asked for help investigating a string of a dozen arson fires after arresting a man for allegedly starting a small fire near Capitol Hill Station.
 

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Design review: Belmont condos, Boylston microhousing

Wednesday night’s session of the East Design Review Board will represent another step in the block by block transformation of Capitol Hill with two projects that will create nearly 100 new homes including new condos on Belmont and new microhousing on Boylston.

301 Belmont Ave E
A new condominium project is coming to this corner just below Broadway replacing a 1908-built fourplex.

301 Belmont Ave E

The plan from a group of investors including OLT Capital and the architects at Wokshop AD calls for a seven-story, 34 condo unit project that will include one unit meeting “the City’s affordable housing incentive criteria” affording the project its extra height and scale under pre-Mandatory Housing Affordability incentives. The developers purchased the property last June for $2 million. Continue reading