Tag Archives: capitol hill station

After an eight-story development north of Cal Anderson fell through, 180 affordable housing units may be coming instead

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A rendering of the planned affordable Alnus building as viewed from 11th Ave E (Image: Hybrid Architecture)

By Cormac Wolf, CHS Intern

After a San Francisco development firm backed out of plans to build an eight-story apartment complex, the Seattle developer of five parcels of land north of Cal Anderson Park has pivoted and is proposing an affordable housing project. The challenges and opportunity are indicative of the the difficulties of developing new housing in Seattle — even if the apartment units could help address the city’s housing crisis with 180 new affordable units.

Ben Maritz, founder of the Great Expectations development company, says their new vision is still tentative this early in the process, but it includes a housing development with around 180 affordable units, a coffee shop and a daycare, both of which he points out are lacking in the immediate vicinity to Capitol Hill Station.

We reported earlier this year on Carmel Partners backing out on a previously planned market-rate apartment development despite millions in sunk costs due to economic condition in the city: high interest rates and higher construction costs.

Carmel’s exit left Maritz’s funding in limbo. His best hope going forward is pursuing an affordable housing project, as it brings a suite of public funding not available to other projects, though he says the application will be competitive.

“We’re not the only ones with this problem,” he says. “I’m sure many other people will have the same idea, and there is a lot of funding but not infinite funding.” Continue reading →

The Capitol Hill Station pigeon relocation program

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By Cormac Wolf, CHS Intern

Serving around 7,000 boardings per day, busy Capitol Hill Station faces its fair share of urban challenges. But riders worried about the station’s solutions to one cold hard fact of city life can hopefully rest easier.

The Capitol Hill Station pigeons are not being shipped off to slaughter.

Concern about Sound Transit’s pigeon traps at the station rose in recent weeks. A Reddit post in r/Seattle and r/pigeon prompted readers to contact CHS, asking about the agency’s Transit’s best pigeon practices in their never-ending hygiene war.

John Gallagher, Sound Transit spokesperson, made it clear that Sound Transit and its crews do not euthanize trapped pigeons. They are released at a site away from the station, though Gallagher said he did not know where.

Continue reading →

911 | Hate crime assault and armed robbery reported at Capitol Hill Station

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Images from a witness of the reported white painter’s suit crew

See something others should know about? Email CHS or call/txt/Signal (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 join and check in with neighbors in the CHS Facebook Group.

  • Capitol Hill Station bias assault and armed robbery: A man said he was hit in the head with a skateboard and robbed of his phone at gunpoint in an altercation early Tuesday morning at Capitol Hill Station. According to the SPD report and East Precinct radio, police were called to the station just before 12:30 AM and found the victim with an injury to his head. The victim said he was assaulted by a group of five suspects as he exited the light rail station. The group assaulted the victim and one suspect brandished a firearm and robbed the man of his phone after he had called 911. Police say the assault and ripoff may be a bias crime. “The victim reported the group used racist and homophobic slurs and he believed he was targeted due to his race and sexual orientation,” the SPD report reads. The suspects were last reported northbound on Broadway but could not be located. Seattle Fire was called to the scene to treat the victim.
  • White painter’s suit car prowls? A group of car prowlers in white painter’s suits has reportedly been making the rounds. This account recorded two days in September when the same crew was actively prowling the area. If you see the group, give 911 a call.

Continue reading →

Why the buildings above Capitol Hill Station aren’t taller

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By Cormac Wolf — CHS Reporting Intern

Ten years ago this month, the Seattle City Council and Sound Transit signed off on the agreement that shaped the combination of housing and new commercial space above the coming Capitol Hill light rail station. Capitol Hill Station opened for light rail service in 2016. The first new apartment dwellers moved in three years ago. New businesses like Glo’s are still moving in today.

The story of the 428 residential units, thousands of square feet of new commercial space including a new grocery, 216 parking stalls for cars, 254 parking stalls for bikes, and the AIDS Memorial Pathway plaza is still taking shape but it is tempting to define the Capitol Hill Station development by what it is not. The buildings aren’t tall enough. Community requirements like a daycare tenant have gone unmet. The bustling market plaza hasn’t really taken shape.

But what Capitol Hill Station is becoming and how it happened is a better story.

The project kicked off negotiations around 2007, when the properties overlying the station were acquired by Sound Transit, and continued through 2009, when community meetings began to be held. Right away, there was concern from the community.

Cathy Hillenbrand had just joined the Capitol Hill stakeholder committee in 2009, and quickly became one of the most prominent voices in the conversation.

“We went to the council and said, ‘We want this neighborhood to have a seat at the table with the city and Sound Transit,’” says Hillenbrand. Continue reading →

The Capitol Hill Station vacuum was a sign — It is time to clean up Broadway’s light rail station

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@typewriteralley recently posted about the now infamous Capitol Hill Station vacuum — “The detritus at Capitol Hill Station has gotten to the level of small appliances”

After seven years accumulation of grime and grit, a discarded vacuum cleaner didn’t push things over the edge but its recent removal along with the rest of the trash that had piled up below the escalator down to the subway platform was a sign of things to come.

It is time to clean up Capitol Hill Station.

John Gallagher, a spokesperson for Sound Transit, tells CHS that the station is generally cleaned on a daily basis, as the custodial staff operates on three shifts throughout the week while also being tasked to respond to urgent cleaning requests from all stations.

But something changed below Broadway in recent months. And the junk — and complaints — have piled up at the seven-year-old facility.

According to Gallagher, Sound Transit has seen an increase in hygiene complaints at the station the possible factors including bold graffiti drawings on the escalators and walls. In addition, riders noticed piles of garbage thrown around the entrances and accumulating in the station’s nooks and crannies.

“We have attempted to make efforts to fix the situation,” Gallagher said. “Last week, we sent a specialized graffiti removal crew to work on the escalators, and cleared out most debris from the elevated areas as well.”

But riders have expressed frustration with the lack of effort taken by Sound Transit to ensure the upkeep of the station, complaining of trash on the overhead lights and the lack of dustbins near the platforms. There was also concern raised about dirt on the floors, and foul smell in most elevators. Continue reading →

Capitol Hill Farmers Market will add Tuesday nights to schedule through summer

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(Image courtesy @typewriteralley)

It takes time and effort to organize the rich soils, the birds, the bees, the seasons, and the farmers. Two years after its move into a larger, more flexible new home, the Capitol Hill Farmers Market is ready for an important change.

Starting next week, the market will expand to add Tuesday nights to its schedule along E Barbara Bailey Way.

The new midweek market will run 3 PM to 7 PM and continue through September 26th, the Neighborhood Farmers Market Alliance announced this week.

The market will continue its year-round weekend schedule on Capitol Hill, Sundays from 11 AM to 3 PM. Continue reading →

After years of plans, new ‘protected left’ signals and transit-only turn lane coming to busy intersection of Broadway, John, and E Olive Way

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(Image: CHS)

The Seattle Department of Transportation is finally ready to complete the long-awaited “Broadway and John Street Signal” project. Construction will begin later in June on a two-month project to create new protected left-turns and a “transit only left-turn lane” at the heavily used intersection fronting Capitol Hill Station and the concentration of Metro bus stops serving the area.

Boiled down by time and shifting funding sources, the proposal born years ago from community feedback will finally take shape this month to make the busy mix of pedestrians, bikers, and drivers at the intersection of Broadway, John, and E Olive Way a safer space.

Starting the week of June 19th, crews will begin work to rebuild the traffic signals to have protected left turns “where left turning drivers have the red while people walking and biking as well as oncoming traffic have the green,” SDOT says.

The project will include rebuilding the traffic signals at the intersection of Broadway and E Olive Way/E John, adding new “left turn pockets” and a “separated signal phase” for eastbound traffic on E Olive Way, installing a new transit-only left turn lane for westbound E John, and removing an area of in-street bike parking “to accommodate transit turning movements.”

For people on foot and bikes outside the busy transit station, the changes are hoped to bring more time and safer crossings while the new transit-only lane will help ease the way for buses. Continue reading →

OK, OK… one last thing about the new Glo’s: Yes, there will be outside seating and yes, Capitol Hill Station is finally getting bike lockers

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How about one last CHS post about the new Glo’s? Its arrival seems to be the final bump needed to get more daily use of the plaza above Capitol Hill Station.

The new diner’s perch on the edge of the AIDS Memorial Pathway and plaza affords some new opportunities starting with the deck area at Glo’s where the diner’s Julie Reisman tells CHS seating will be going in soon just across from E Barbara Bailey Way and Cal Anderson Park. Continue reading →

Bigger and better, Glo’s Diner reopens Monday in its new Capitol Hill Station home

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Three and a half times bigger and 10,000 times better to work in, the new Glo’s Diner has finally arrived at Capitol Hill Station — only one year behind schedule. It opens for regular business Monday after a weekend serving customers who helped the Capitol Hill classic raise enough cash to build out the new diner with comfy booths and the mid-century style of Denny’s, diners, and roadside motels.

Much can be made of “chef owners” in the Capitol Hill food and drink scene and at Glo’s there are two of them — both Julie Reisman and Steve Frias also proudly work the line. Reisman says the A/C in the new joint is so good that in the kitchen, “It’s almost too cold.”

“We made this a better place to work,” Reisman tells CHS.

CHS reported here way back in August 2021 on the plans for Glo’s to pull up stakes on the much-loved but increasingly challenging E Olive Way original and join the new housing and commercial development above Capitol Hill Station along Broadway. Last year, the neighborhood finally got its H Mart in the form of the company’s M2M grocery. In 2023, Glo’s has arrived.

In between, pandemic delays including eight months waiting for permits from the city, Reisman says, and more have kept the people waiting. They didn’t even have the old Glo’s to tide them over — the original had to close down after  a damaging fire last summer.

But along the way, the people also helped out Glo’s.

Reisman at work

Continue reading →

Sound Transit gets downtown light rail service back to normal 72 hours early after clock removal mishap

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Sound Transit CEO Julie Timm with a chunk of concrete that could have made the downtown transit tunnel unsafe for riders during the repairs (Image: @JulieETimm)

Sound Transit is coming in three days early on the predicted two-week emergency service disruption caused by ill-timed problems with street-level clock maintenance that snarled Seattle’s downtown transit tunnel.

With agency CEO Julie Timm providing detailed and near-live updates over the weekend, crews were able to finally fully assess the damage and come up with a plan for repair that had service nearly fully restored Monday. Continue reading →