
Michelle and Danielle Forbes of PJ’s Classic Creamery

(Image: sMALLbox)
By Matt Dowell
Hundreds of apartments now rise above 23rd and Union — 23rd and Cherry is the next Central District intersection lined up for massive change.
On the northwest corner, the inclusively developed, five and a half-story Acer House mixed-use affordable housing project is now under construction after breaking ground this spring.
On the southeast, bids have gone out for contractors for the $8.4 million Garfield Super Block project set to reshape the public space around the Garfield Community Center and Garfield High School with a new promenade, new public art, a renovated park, and new play areas for this core of the Central District.
Change and a smaller kind of growth is already underway on the northeast corner of 23rd and Cherry where an experiment in mixed-use development is underway.
Ron Rubin, long time Seattle real estate developer, has started transforming the twelve single car garages at his 705 24th Ave property into sMALL BOX, an “affordable micro-business incubator space” that he hopes will bring life and walkability to the block. In the last month, the first two businesses have opened: PJ’s Classic Creamery (ice cream-filled bon bons) and The ShoreHouse (shaved ice and coffee). No surprise, in an area flush with schools and kids sports games, the snack stands are early hits.
Rubin came up with the idea for sMALL (like “small mall”) after traveling to places like Bangkok and Amsterdam, where retail centers with hundreds of stores create something that Seattle is missing: neighborhood streets that are “buzzing with pedestrian-friendly walk-up micro-storefronts”. But as he and the new businesses move forward with what he’s calling “phase 2” of the project, the idea will be tested. Rubin will need to find more tenants willing to work in the small spaces which are only 180 square feet a piece. Once established, will the businesses attract the foot traffic that Rubin envisions? Continue reading →